Pat Dollard | Young Americans

From Politico.com:

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois won caucuses in Nebraska, Louisiana and Washington Saturday as his too-close-to-call race with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York moved to three new battlegrounds.

Some 158 delegates were at stake - and Obama also won caucuses in the Virgin Islands that offered three more delegates.

Clinton began the day with a slender delegate lead, according to a tabulation by the Associated Press, which showed her with 1,055 delegates to 998 for Obama. A total of 2,025 is required to win the nomination.

The contests in Nebraska, Washington and Louisiana mark the latest battlegrounds in what is shaping up as a long and bitter struggle between Obama and Clinton. Both had hoped to establish some edge in the race on Super Tuesday earlier this week, but they emerged with a virtual tie in delegates earned.

Maine, with 24 delegates, holds caucuses on Sunday. Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia and voting by Americans overseas are next, on Tuesday, with 175 combined.

Clinton spoke at the University of Maine student center Saturday morning and urged supporters to participate in the state’s caucuses.

“This is your chance to be part of helping Maine pick a president,” she said. “So I hope even if you’ve never, ever caucused before, tomorrow will be your first time … because there is so much at stake in this election.”

Obama, also campaigning in Maine, looked ahead to the general election by criticizing McCain without mentioning Clinton.

McCain initially “stood up to George Bush and opposed his first cuts,” Obama said at Nicky’s Diner in Bangor. Now the GOP senator is calling for continuing the president’s tax cuts “in his rush to embrace the worst of the Bush legacy,” Obama said.