Nail-biting White House races goes national

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — White House contenders fanned out Thursday as the gripping presidential race headed into a series of battleground states, from gritty Michigan to lush South Carolina and the deserts of Nevada.

The Democratic field, thrown wide open by Hillary Clinton's surprise win in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, thinned out with the withdrawal of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.

Leading Republicans sparred in Michigan, a heavyweight state scarred by industrial decline, before descending on South Carolina for an evening debate.

Clinton's vanquished opponent on Tuesday, Barack Obama, won the backing of the Democrats' 2004 standardbearer, John Kerry, as Obama wowed supporters in sunny South Carolina with his call that "our time for change has come."...