Barack Obama could hardly have had a better weekend.On Sunday he added the Maine Democratic presidential caucus to the three contests he swept Saturday against rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, giving him momentum heading into Tuesday’s voting in three mid-Atlantic states.
For a cherry on top, he won a Grammy award Sunday, beating former president Bill Clinton and others for “best spoken word album,” for the audio version of his book, “The Audacity of Hope.”
While everything seemed to go Obama’s way this weekend, the Clinton campaign was regrouping. Campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle stepped down a few hours before it was clear that Obama had carried Maine, where both candidates had addressed crowds on Saturday.
Obama also won in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington on Saturday.
The Illinois senator exulted Sunday, telling a crowd of 18,000 in Virginia Beach, Va., “We have won on the Atlantic coast, we have won on the Gulf coast, we have won on the Pacific coast and we have won between those coasts.”
The Democratic nomination is far from decided, with weeks or months of campaigning still ahead. Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, is an experienced, well-financed campaigner certainly capable of pulling off more surprise wins, as she did Jan. 8 in New Hampshire.
She also is vying with Obama for the endorsement of former candidate John Edwards. Clinton quietly visited Edwards last Thursday in North Carolina, and Obama reportedly planned to do the same Monday after two rallies in Maryland.
For now, at least, the wind is at Obama’s back. He won Maryland and Virginia, which held primaries Tuesday, along with the District of Columbia.
Clinton’s best bet is to slow his momentum may lie in upcoming primaries in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania.