Obama barrels past Clinton in N.C.

Obama scores a lopsided victory here over Clinton, putting her on the ropes as campaign slogs ahead. But the former first lady vows to keep fighting.

RALEIGH -- Sen. Barack Obama's double-digit victory in North Carolina and a narrow loss in Indiana brought him closer to clinching the Democratic nomination for president.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, said she would continue her fight even as she fell further behind in the delegate count.

Obama carried North Carolina on Tuesday, winning a good chunk of its 115 pledged delegates and soaring to a solid victory on cascades of support from blacks, young people and voters who say they have been hit hard by the troubled economy.

With 99 percent of the state reporting, he was ahead 56 percent to 42 percent.

Obama celebrated his victory in the Tar Heel state, speaking to thousands of cheering volunteers and supporters at N.C. State University's Reynolds Coliseum.

"They've been saying that North Carolina would be a game-changing state in this election," Obama said. "But what North Carolina decided is that the only game that needs changing is the one in Washington, D.C."

He also pledged to bring the troubled Democratic party together.

"We cannot give John McCain the chance to serve out George Bush's third term," he said of the presumptive Republican nominee. "We will be united in November."

But Clinton carried almost two-thirds of the white Democratic vote here, and many of those voters told exit pollsters they would not support Obama in November if he's the Democratic nominee.

She also squeaked past Obama in the mostly white, working-class state of Indiana, keeping her presidential hopes alive.

In her speech in Indianapolis, Clinton said she would now move to other primary states such as Kentucky and West Virginia where, she said, "their voices have not been heard for far too long."

"I'm running to be the president of all America -- north, south, east, west," she said.

In North Carolina, Obama won in part because of overwhelming turnout among black voters, said Hunter Bacot, an Elon University political scientist. CNN exit polls showed 91 percent of black voters went for Obama, a surge that helped him score his double-digit win.

An Obama win greater than 10 percent is "a significant underscore to the North Carolina victory and should dispel some of the notions of his electability in the fall," said Bacot, who runs Elon University's statewide polls and has been studying the Tar Heel electorate.

A Southern coalition

U.S. Rep. David Price of Chapel Hill, an Obama supporter, said the results show that, contrary to pundits' views, Obama has broad support.

"He won voters that make under $50,000, he won among those without college degrees," Price said. He said Obama's strength among blacks is nothing new for Democrats below the Mason-Dixon line.

"He put together the kind of coalition that Democratic politicians in the South have relied on for generations," Price said.

At Reynolds Coliseum, Obama took on the doubters, saying he thinks Americans can move beyond race, gender, regional and class divisions.

"I love this country too much to see it divided and distracted at this critical point in history," Obama said.

Although Obama won in North Carolina among urban, suburban and rural voters, he acknowledged Tuesday that he has not had strong success luring working-class whites from his opponent -- something the Clinton camp has used to portray him as unelectable in November.

"They're the best-established brand name in Democratic politics, maybe in politics overall," he said of Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. "They've been on the scene for 20 years. They're not going to go down easy."