Delaware goes big for Obama

With only a few delegates at stake, the Delaware primary hadn't gained much attention even from the candidates - until Sunday, that is.

Then came a big, rambunctious rally in Wilmington at which Barack Obama seized on an opportunity to snatch the Democratic vote from the longtime front-runner, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

That event, attended by thousands of people, evidently paid off for Obama yesterday.

The Illinois senator gained an impressive victory in the state, which bills itself as "Small Wonder" - a diverse mix of wealthy suburbs in the north, urban grit in Wilmington, and poultry farming in the south.

Obama, who had been slightly behind in a poll conducted before the weekend by the nonpartisan American Research Group, easily defeated Clinton. Though other candidates got a few votes, the head-to-head ratio for Obama and Clinton was 55-45 in Obama's favor.

On the Republican side, Arizona Sen. John McCain lived up to the widely held expectation that he would defeat former governors Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas.

Romney finished second and Huckabee a distant third.

The Obama rally Sunday may have been a key event. It seemed to awaken the Democrat electorate. The state reported that Democratic turnout yesterday was 38 percent, compared with 28 percent among the GOP.

Democratic voter John Spisak, who retired two years ago from General Motors, said he had made up his mind only in the final days to back Obama.

His reason, he said, was practical: He thinks Obama could beat McCain if McCain becomes the GOP nominee.

"If Hillary is the one who has to go against McCain, I don't think she can make it," he said.

Diane Young, another Obama voter, said she liked his mantra of change.

Young, an educator, said that Obama, as an African American with a real chance to win the presidency, was making history.

"I think it's important for our young people to see where we have come from," she said. "At one point, we couldn't vote."

Dina Lipschultz, who teaches at a Hebrew school in Wilmington, was equally impressed that a woman had a real shot at the Oval Office.

"I was very glad to vote for her and to know that a woman could run for president," she said. "But that isn't the main reason I voted for her. . . . I feel that she has more experience."

Delaware will have just 23 delegates at the Democratic convention in Denver in August. California will have the most, 441.

Fifteen of the delegates were at stake yesterday. They will be divided according to the percentage of the vote that each candidate won. The others were selected by party leaders.

U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat, was among several former candidates who remained on the ballot. He received a few percentage points.

In the Republican primary, 18 delegates were at stake, winner take all.