Obama Basks in
Crowds, Momentum

Sen. 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 Sen. 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 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 State on Saturday.

Looking beyond contests Tuesday in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, the Obama campaign announced Monday it is starting television advertising throughout Texas focusing on health care; the primary is March 4. The ads will begin airing on English-language broadcast stations Tuesday, and plans are under way for Spanish-language ads.

Typically it costs $1 million per week in Texas to wage a statewide political advertising campaign that saturates the approximately two-dozen TV markets. Obama raised $32 million in January to Clinton's $13.5 million, and the former first lady said last week she had lent her campaign $5 million.

Clinton's aides have not said when and where she would be advertising in the state. Texas organizer Garry Mauro, a former state land commissioner, said Clinton would campaign in all media markets, though he wouldn't say if she would pay for advertising everywhere. The major media markets are Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Austin.

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 January 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, but Obama decided not to do the same on Monday.

For now, at least, the wind is at Obama's back. Polls published Sunday showed him leading in Maryland and Virginia, which hold primaries Tuesday, along with the District of Columbia.

Barring a Clinton upset in one of those states, her best bet to slow his momentum may lie in upcoming primaries in Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Obama has looked buoyant and confident in recent days, basking in huge crowds that cheer him lustily and call out ''We love you'' and ''Yes, we can!'' (Charles Babington, AP)