Triumph for John McCain; Mike Huckabee Concedes; Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Go On

Finally, John McCain has clinched the Republican nomination. The Senator from Arizona managed to get enough delegates to declare victory on Tuesday evening.

According to CNN, McCain won all four states (Texas, Vermont, Rhode Island) including Ohio with a size able margin against challenger Mike Huckabee.

Mike Huckabee, who conceded minutes before McCain addressed his supporters at Dallas, had expected to win Texas and keep his campaign going until McCain reached the magic number of 1,191 delegates. But McCain was declared the winner early with 6% precincts reporting -56% to 33%. In Ohio, McCain, with 32% precincts reporting, scored 59% to Huckabee's 31%.

As someone who proudly declared that he "majored in miracles, not in math", the evening was eye opening for Huckabee. Numbers finally caught up and his campaign was over. Addressing his supporters, Huckabee said that now he stands behind John McCain and will help the nominee every way he can. He called for a united Republican party and asked his supporters to band together to win the November election.

Although losses in today's primaries, dubbed Super Tuesday Part II, has ended Huckabee's campaign it is not the end for his political career. During the campaign, it was clear that sizable number of Republican voters believe in his message. Even when numbers were not in his side, he managed to get votes and even win some key Southern states. If Mitt Romney is planning 2012 run to White House he should be aware of Mike Huckabee, a candidate who came in with very little name recognition and resources but still managed to stay on for so long and on the way won support in some key states.

On the democratic side, the race is still on.

In Ohio, until the time of posting this article, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are in close contest. According to CNN, with 45% of precincts reporting, Clinton has 56% and Obama has 42% (as of 10:33 PM).

There are 162 total delegates (141 delegates, 21 super delegates) at stake in Ohio.

Looking at the voting pattern across counties in Ohio, it seems that Obama's support is mostly coming from more urban areas and Clinton is getting votes from the rural areas. With almost half of the precincts reporting, the race is very close, still it is safe to make a prediction that Clinton has the momentum here and will likely win.

Although Clinton is likely to win Ohio, Obama will be very close behind. Not a strong victory she has been hoping for. What this means is that, Clinton will add on few delegates but she will be far from getting to a position of strength and confidence.

Obama, even after losing Ohio, will be in the driver's seat at the democratic campaign.

As for what will happen next, Republicans will work on a national campaign pooling all their resources. The democrats will continue the race to the finish until one of the candidate actually gets 2,025 delegates.

Sources:CNN Ohio Results
CNN Republican ScoreCard