republican nominating convention

Barack Obama powered past Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, taking the lead in delegates for the first time with three commanding victories in and around the U.S. capital. Clinton, considered the overwhelming Democratic favorite just a few weeks ago, has now lost eight straight contests with her defeats Tuesday in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. She was shaking up her staff and turning her attention to must-win races next month in Texas and Ohio. Obama is counting on wins in Wisconsin and his birthplace, Hawaii, next week.

Cheered by a roaring crowd, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois laid claim to the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night, taking a historic step toward his once-improbable goal of becoming the nation's first black president. Hillary Rodham Clinton maneuvered for the vice presidential spot on his fall ticket without conceding her own defeat. ''America, this is our moment,'' the 46-year-old senator and one-time community organizer said in his first appearance as the Democratic nominee-in-waiting. ''This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past.''

Hillary Rodham Clinton's name will be placed in nomination along with nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, an emblematic move intended to unite the party after a divisive primary. During the Denver gathering, Democrats will officially choose Obama to run against Republican John McCain this fall, but the state delegations will do a traditional roll call for their nominee's vanquished primary opponent as well.

John McCain effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday as chief rival Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign. ''I must now stand aside, for our party and our country,'' Romney told conservatives. ''If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,'' Romney told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.