Washington DC today (AP)

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent 52 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain swept a delegate-rich, East Coast Tuesday night, for command for the Republican. Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama traded victories in an epic from Connecticut to California.

The first lady said, "I look forward to continuing our campaign and our debate about how to leave this country better off for the next generation."

McCain, the Republican front-runner whose campaign nearly unraveled six months ago, won in all 198 delegates at stake there, Illinois and Oklahoma in his column.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won Bible Belt victories, in Alabama and Georgia as also triumphed at the Republican West Virginia convention, and told The Associated Press in an interview. "The one way you can’t win a race is to quit it, and until somebody beats me, I’m going to answer the bell for every round of this fight," he said.

Romney, Massachusetts, won a home state victory. He took Utah, where fellow Mormons. He, too, breathed defiance. "We’re going to go all the way to the convention. We’re going to win this thing," he told supporters in Boston.

Democrats play historic struggle Clinton, to become first female president and Obama, hope the first black to win the White House.

Clinton won at home in New York, in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas, where she was first lady for more than a decade. She won the caucuses in American Samoa.

Obama won Connecticut, Georgia, Alabama, Delaware, Utah and his home state of Illinois, prevailed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, three caucus states.

After of low-delegate, single-state contests, Super Tuesday was anything but small — its in the most wide-open presidential campaign in memory.

The result was Obama and Clinton fights as well rights in individual states, the Republicans do too.

Polling place interviews with subtle shifts in the political landscape, potentially the races push on the campaign calendar.

For this year, McCain ran first in a few states Republicans, usually independents. Romney was get the votes four in 10 people who described themselves as conservative. McCain win one-third of that group, and Huckabee one in five.

Overall, Clinton only a slight edge among women and white voters, groups that she had won handily contests, according results with voters in 16 states. Obama collecting majority of votes cast by blacks.

Clinton the votes of roughly six in 10 Hispanics, she hoped the edge would serve her well to Arizona, New Mexico and California, the biggest prize with 370 delegates. The vote count by hours. That true for the Democrats, who divided theirs roughly in proportion to the popular vote.

Nine of the Republican winner take all, McCain piled up his lead.

The Arizona 345 delegates to 129 for Romney and 115 for Huckabee. It takes 1,191 to clinch the presidential at next summer’s St. Paul, Minn.

Overall, Clinton had 348 delegates to 282 for Obama, out of the 2,025 needed to secure victory in Denver. Clinton’s advantage is due to her lead among so-called superdelegates, members of Congress and other party leaders who are not selected — and who are also free to change their minds.

Alabama and Georgia gave Obama three straight Southern triumphs. Like last month’s win in South Carolina, they were powered by black votes.

Democrats and Republicans said the economy was their most important issue. Democrats said the war in Iraq ranked second and health care third. Republican said immigration was second most important after the economy, followed by the war in Iraq.

The survey 16 states by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International for The Associated Press and television networks.

McCain was the Republican front-runner, all but unchallenged in winner-take-all primaries in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. He looked in Arizona, as well.

Democrats Obama and Clinton conceded likely to emerge from the busiest day in primary history with anything more a relatively narrow edge in convention delegates.

"Senator Clinton, I think, has to be the prohibitive favorite going in given her name recognition, but we’ve been steadily chipping away," said Obama, seeking to downplay expectations.

As she voted in Chappaqua, N.Y., the former first lady said, "The stakes are huge."

Already, both campaigns were looking ahead to Feb. 9 contests in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state and Feb. 12 primaries in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. And increase like the Democrats’ historic race a woman and a black man would go into early spring, possibly longer.

The de facto the culmination of Christmas week.

After a brief rest for the holiday, the candidates flew back to Iowa on Dec. 26 for a final stretch of campaigning before the state’s caucuses offered the first test of the election year. New Hampshire‘s traditional first-in-the-nation primary followed a few days later, then a seemingly endless series of campaign day by debates and a handful of primaries and caucuses.

Along the way, the poorest: Democratic Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio; and Republican Reps. Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo, and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson.

Former Sen. John Edwards pulled out of the Democratic race last week, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani left the Republican field.

Edwards offered no endorsement, instead leaving Obama and Clinton to vie for his fundraisers and supporters.

But Obama benefited from by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who made a series of campaign appearances in California of Massachusetts.

Giuliani quit the race and McCain in the same breath, clearing the way for the Westerner in New York and New Jersey.

Giuliani’s departure also made it possible for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to back McCain. Schwarzenegger said as long as the former mayor was in the race.

Obama and Clinton spend estimated $20 million to advertise on television in the Feb 5 states.

Obama spent $11 million, running ads in 18 of the 22 states with Democratic contests. Clinton ran ads in 17, for a total of $9 million.

Neither advertised in Illinois, Obama’s home state.

(Corrects Minnesota to Obama, not Clinton)