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Gore, Bush handily win super primaries, set for nominations

WASHINGTON: Al Gore effectively won the Democratic presidential nomination on "Super Tuesday" while Republican favourite George W. Bush pushed his rival John McCain to the brink of extinction by winning the key contests.

With their victories from coast to coast, it was clear the presidential election on Nov. 7 would pit Gore, the vice president and political heir of President Bill Clinton, against Bush, the governor of Texas and actual heir of former President George Bush.

Already in their victory speeches, both Bush and Gore laid out the themes of the coming campaign. Gore said, "Continue the prosperity". Bush said, "Restore honour to the White House."

Gore's sole Democratic rival, former Sen. Bill Bradley, was expected to formally drop out of the race on Thursday.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, who had mounted a spirited challenge to Bush, could do the same, though his aides vehemently denied reports that a decision had been made.

But regardless of what McCain does, Bush could wrap up the Republican presidential nomination by winning nine state primaries and caucuses scheduled in the next week.

In the biggest primary day ever held in U.S. history, Americans voted on Tuesday in 16 states and one territory, from Maine in the Northeast to American Samoa and Hawaii in the heart of the Pacific Ocean.

Gore beat Bradley in New York, California, Georgia, Vermont, Ohio, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Rhode Island, North Dakota, Idaho and Missouri, the state where Bradley was born and raised, a devastating blow to the one-time basketball star.

Bush beat McCain, the former Navy pilot who spent 5 1/2 years in a Vietnam prison camp, in California, New York, Georgia, Ohio, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota and Missouri, losing only in four New England states.

McCain told his supporters he would take some time to reflect on the future of his campaign but his crusade to get big money out of politics would go on.

The big tests of the day were California with its 162 delegates to the Republican National Convention and New York with its 101 delegates -- a state McCain aides said he had to win to have a realistic chance of remaining a viable candidate.

Bush easily won the Republican vote in California and a much tighter race in New York following a bitterly divisive campaign. In his victory speech, Bush called for Republican unity to end eight years of Democratic control of the White House.

Gore had won 1,306 delegates to 386 for Bradley, according to an unofficial count by CNN. The magic number to secure the Democratic nomination is 2,168.

Bush had 660 delegates to 210 for McCain on the way to the 1,034 delegates needed for the Republican nomination.

Gore, accepting victory in Nashville, Tennessee, challenged the Republican nominee to drop TV advertising and hold twice weekly debates on separate issues -- a challenge he also offered to Bradley, which he rejected as a ploy.

"I will challenge the Republican nominee to join with me right now in banning so-called soft money and then going even further to eliminate all of the 30-second and 60-second radio and TV ads and instead debate twice a week every week as soon as the nominees of the parties are known, every week until the election, a separate issue each time," Gore said.

Bush was almost certain to reject Gore's proposal which, if accepted, would lead to an unprecedented 22 presidential debates. There were three in 1992 and two in 1996.

Looking ahead to November, a Wall Street Journal poll on Tuesday showed Bush and Gore tied with 46 percent apiece, the first national poll in which Gore has not trailed for more than a year. Bush had enjoyed a lead over Gore for much of 1999 of between 15 and 20 percentage points.

California held separate votes for Republicans and Democrats as well as a closely watched "beauty contest" -- a nonbinding open ballot in which all candidates competed.

In early returns with 12 percent of precincts reporting, Bush led than contest with 31 percent, ahead of Gore with 30 percent and 25 for McCain.

Exit polls had predicted a narrow Gore victory.

It was clear the two Republicans outpolled the two Democrats, giving the party hope for the general election.

A Republican has not carried California in a presidential election since Bush's father did so in 1988.

McCain's sole pocket of strength against Bush was in New England where Republicans tend to be less conservative than elsewhere in the nation. In that region, McCain took Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont.-Reuters