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."

Bacot doesn't think all the people who voted for Clinton on Tuesday would have voted for her over McCain in the fall anyway.

"Those are your Reagan Democrats in the South," he said. He predicted that if Obama is nominated, he could continue gathering new voters among young people and blacks.

"I think he might be able to turn it out better," Bacot said.

Voting their pocketbook

Polls showed that voters concerned about the economy tended to vote for Obama, while those who wanted experience turned to Clinton.

"I think one of the main issues is energy costs," said Rick Flynn, 50, of Chapel Hill. "At least he had the decency to not jump on the bandwagon of cutting the gas tax for three months. I mean, what a joke. Not only is it a joke, it takes $18 billion out of the treasury."

Others like the idea of a former first lady in the White House.

"With Hillary Clinton it's buy one, get one free," said Revathy Rao, 44, a teacher's assistant from Chapel Hill. "I'm sure Mr. Clinton will step in and help with the economic recovery and everything. Obama looks a little bit like a dreamer to me."

Obama was still looking for blue-collar credibility as late as Tuesday afternoon, when he waltzed into a downtown Raleigh bar, ordered a Pabst Blue Ribbon and tipped the bartender $18.

Earlier in the day, Obama ate a $6.95 omelet at an Indiana restaurant and told reporters Clinton has done well because blue-collar voters are familiar with her.

"It's really a mixed bag," Obama said.

Exit polls show Tar Heel Democrats valued change more than experience, that they found Obama more honest, that they thought Obama shared their values and that they believed he would do better in handling the ailing economy. He also carried the state's urban areas around Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Fayetteville.

Tougher to measure among voters was the idealist vs. pragmatist split. Many Democrats had November on their minds Tuesday, and for good reason. McCain signaled his plan for North Carolina by making visits Monday on the eve of the primary.

The generation gap

Take the father-and-son pair voting in Durham. Gerald Rubin Jr., 20, voted for the first time Tuesday because, he said, he is inspired by Obama.

"He gives hope to the nation," Rubin said.

His father, meanwhile, cast his ballot with an eye to the Democratic party's future.

"I just think maybe Obama's time might not be now," said Gerald Rubin Sr., 49. "Maybe come the general election, he might be burned by McCain."

The question now is how long the contest will go on. Tuesday's results extended Obama's lead in the delegate count.

"We have a lot to celebrate tonight, and I think the Clinton folks have a lot to think about," said David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist.

"There's no question we're closer to the finish line. From this point on, Senator Clinton would have to win close to 70 percent of the remaining delegates. That's a very tall order."

(Staff writers Matt Dees, Cori Sue Morris and Ben Niolet, and McClatchy correspondent Margaret Talev contributed to this report.)

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