Obama surges past floundering Clinton

Hillary Clinton's White House bid is floundering after devastating results in the so-called 'Potomac primaries' yesterday, in Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. Voters savaged the Clinton campaign's assertions that Barack Obama could only win in small caucuses with support from blacks and liberal yuppies.

In Virginia, Obama led among women, men, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, Latinos, union households and independents. He only lost white 45-60 year olds and white women aged between 45 and 55.

In Maryland he captured Latino voters, thought to be a reliable part of Hillary's base, by 53-47. He won among all age groups, in every part of the state, among high school drop-outs as well as PhDs. He took the women's vote away from Hillary by 21 points. In Washington DC, the former First Lady suffered another rout.

Six stinging reversals in four days have made Obama into the acknowledged front-runner. Politicians previously sitting on the fence are now edging towards endorsement, among them Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House majority leader. Obama's treasury is overflowing, while Hillary's is drained.

For the first time, Obama now has a lead in delegates committed to voting for him at the party convention in August. To stay in the game until the final count in Denver, Hillary will have to win every single remaining contest by a margin of 60-40. It's still thought she has a majority of the 'super-delegates' – 798 of them – who won't have to commit to a candidate until they meet in Denver, but if Obama continues to make a strong showing, many super-delegates will tell the Clintons that all bets are off.

The race has see-sawed since Iowa, and big victories for Hillary in Ohio and Texas on March 4 could still put her back on her feet, but there are ominous signs. The Wisconsin primary next Tuesday was to have been Mrs Clinton's chance to recover from