Video: Obama's victory speech

Barack Obama donned the mantle of front-runner yesterday and claimed that it was now virtually impossible for Hillary Clinton to catch him in their Democratic presidential contest.

After landslide victories in three more primaries on Tuesday, which put him ahead in the race for delegates for the first time, Mr Obama’s campaign sought to portray his momentum as unstoppable. They warned the Democratic Party establishment not to defy the will of its voters by negotiating a victory for Mrs Clinton in the coming weeks.

Mr Obama’s wins in Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC, where he ate into Mrs Clinton’s core support among women, whites, the elderly and blue-collar voters, put him more than 100 ahead of Mrs Clinton in the tally of elected delegates. It is a lead, his aides say, that Mrs Clinton cannot now close because of the demographics of the remaining contests, and they began a campaign to try to muscle her from the race.

Yet because their battle remains so close, it is almost impossible for either candidate to garner enough elected delegates to claim a clear win, increasing the likelihood that the party’s 796 unelected “super-delegates” – its members of Congress, governors, former presidents and elite officials – will decide the race.

In the scramble for the hundreds of uncommitted super-delegates, the Obama campaign is now turning the screw by daring them to back Mrs Clinton – a candidate they say will emerge from the nominating process with fewer elected delegates, less of the popular vote, and substantially fewer states won. To date, Mr Obama has won 23 out of 35 contests. “There is a growing belief out there that super-delegates should not overturn the outcome of this contest . . . we think super-delegates will ratify that outcome,” David Plouffe, Mr Obama’s campaign manager, said.

With Mr Obama favoured to win next Tuesday’s contests in Wisconsin and Hawaii, Mrs Clinton faces the prospect of heading to Ohio and Texas on March 4 – two states where she is banking all on victory – having suffered ten straight defeats since Super Tuesday, and with a rival raising record sums of money. James Carville, Bill Clinton’s former strategist, said it was door-die for the former First Lady. “If she loses either Texas or Ohio this thing is done,” he said.

Yet Mrs Clinton will not countenance defeat, and with her husband has prevailed in myriad battles over the past two decades. She still believes firmly in victory, despite the resignations of two of her top officials in the past 48 hours.

In the highly unpredictable race she has twice blunted Mr Obama’s momentum – against the prevailing wisdom – with her comeback wins in New Hampshire and in big states across America on Super Tuesday.

Twin triumphs on March 4, where she hopes that working-class whites in Ohio and Latinos in Texas will give her victories, would again reshape the race and transform her fortunes. She also has a key super-delegate onside – her husband.

In an email message to supporters, Mrs Clinton said: “Every time they start to count us out, we prove them wrong. And we’re going to keep proving them wrong as many times as we need to until we win the White House.”

Unveiling a new stump speech in Texas, Mrs Clinton sharpened her attacks on her rival’s thin record and his lofty, but often insubstantial, rhetoric. Both candidates spent the day focused on the economy, with an eye on economically depressed Ohio. Mr Obama delivered an economic policy address in Wisconsin in which he lambasted Mrs Clinton for voting for the Iraq war – a conflict “costing us billions of dollars a week”.

She continued to challenge him to more debates, a forum in which she excels.

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