Clinton claims win in Florida primary

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton claimed victory in a campaign-free Florida presidential primary while rival Barack Obama sketched a personal story that he argues can bring the nation together.

Both candidates moved quickly to shore up backing in states with looming contests as the potential for a protracted competition for the party's nomination grew ever more likely, making for a bitter battle over delegates to the summer's national convention.

For her part, Clinton was traveling Wednesday to Arkansas, where she served as first lady, before flying to Atlanta for the Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner. Both of those states vote next Tuesday as part of a mega-primary day.

Obama was heading for Denver and then Phoenix for campaign rallies in states with big Hispanic populations, an important constituency and one for which the two are competing hard.

Clinton appeared in this south Florida city Tuesday night for a campaign event before about 1,000 backers, touting a victory in a race in which all the candidates had signed pledges not to compete.

With her lopsided loss to Obama last weekend in the South Carolina primary, Clinton was shopping for a place to claim a win in an effort to break his momentum.

"I could not come here in person to ask for your vote, but I am here today to thank you for your votes today," Clinton declared at the kind of noisy rally that Florida Democrats have missed this election season.

Flanked by prominent Florida backers like Sen. Bill Nelson, she did her best to push her message on a night when the spotlight was on the Republicans and their tight race.

"I'm thrilled to have the vote of confidence you gave me today," Clinton said. "I am convinced that with this record vote, with the millions of Americans who will vote next Tuesday, we'll send a message that America is back and we will take charge of our destiny once again."

Citing the record turnout of 1.5 million Democrats, Clinton strategist Mark Penn called the results "significant" and "far more than symbolic." Whatever the case, Clinton won 50 percent of the vote, Obama 33 percent. John Edwards got 14 percent.

Obama, meanwhile, was in Kansas collecting the backing of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and talking in more detail about his personal story. The son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya, he was raised largely in Hawaii and lived in Indonesia.

Obama said his life has given him the depth to understand the various streams running through the nation, an understanding he believes could ease its cultural divisions.

"It's a varied and unlikely journey, but one that's held together by the same simple dream," he said. "And that is why it is an American story. That's why I can stand here and talk about how this country is more than a collection of red states and blue states because my story could have only happened in the United States of America."

That was the theme of the speech that electrified many Democrats at their 2004 national convention and propelled Obama to a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois.

Florida got less attention from Democrats this year because the national party stripped the state of its delegates as punishment for moving its primary ahead of Feb. 5. It is expected that the eventual nominee will try to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan, which violated party rules by moving its primary to Jan. 15.

Michigan is a must-win state for Democrats, while Florida is a crucial swing state.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080130/ap_on_el_pr/democrats [link]