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The room full of local Clinton supporters in the Columbia Avenue restaurant erupted in applause, raising celebratory glasses of light beer. Helene Guilfoy, 64, of Lancaster, wearing a red baseball cap and a white "I Love Hillary" T-shirt, formed a "V" with her arms, signaling the victory.
"The key issue is she's won all the industrial states," Guilfoy said. "(Barack Obama) hasn't won a state we have to win in November. He's won none of them."
Clinton breathed new life into her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination with a 10-point victory over Obama in delegate-rich Pennsylvania, ending an arduous and sometimes rancorous six-week campaign against Obama.
With 93 percent of the state's precincts reporting, Clinton captured 1.14 million votes to Obama's 933,866 — 55 percent to 45 percent.
"Some people counted me out and said I should drop out," Clinton told a victory rally in Philadelphia. "The American people don't quit, and they deserve a president who doesn't quit."
Obama, at a rally in Evansville, Ind., where voters go to the polls in less than two weeks, said he will fight on.
"We can't keep playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players," he said. "Not this time."
Lancaster County's Democratic voters sided with Obama. With all county precincts reporting, the unofficial results were:
Barack Obama .......... 27,126
Hillary Clinton ....... 22,710
Statewide, voter turnout ranged from 40 to 50 percent, but in Lancaster County the turnout was 35.1 percent, according to the county Board of Elections.
The Lancaster results mean two local delegates for Obama and two for Clinton will go to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August. With all precincts reporting, the unofficial vote count for Democratic delegates were:
Mike Sturla .......... 24,886
Rick Gray ............ 23,936
Carol E. Hunt ........ 22,198
Lois K. Herr ......... 21,341
B. Dayle Brown ....... 20,207
Julianne Dickson ..... 18,508
John Graupera ........ 16,975
Ben Donahower ........ 16,921
Sturla, Gray, Hunt and Brown all are committed to Obama. Herr, Dickson, Graupera and Donahower are committed to Clinton. The top two vote-getters for each of the candidates will go to the convention.
The race now goes to North Carolina, where Obama is heavily favored, and Indiana, which is expected to be competitive. Both states vote May 6, which could change the dynamics of the Democratic race — again.
A month ago, Clinton had opened up a 16-point lead over Obama among likely Democratic voters, but Obama had closed the gap to single digits before his characterization of rural Pennsylvanians as bitter and clinging to guns and religion.
Many experts and pundits and even her supporters acknowledged Clinton needed to win big here to make a dent in Obama's lead nationally among delegates. Obama entered Tuesday with a 139-delegate lead with 10 primaries to go. A candidate needs 2,025 delegates to secure the nomination.
Early reports showed Clinton gaining six delegates on Obama, who remains the frontrunner.
The Associated Press said Clinton won big among the labor vote, women and white men, while Obama drew support from blacks, the wealthy and voters who recently left the Republican Party to become Democrats.
The economy appears to be the overwhelmingly top concern for Democratic voters, playing to what was Clinton's strength during the entire six weeks leading up to Tuesday's vote.
"She won her core groups and won them with substantial margins, effectively holding onto the voters she has won in earlier primaries," said G. Terry Madonna, director of Franklin & Marshall College's Center for Politics & Public Affairs. "No. 2, he underperformed in some of his demographics."
Madonna said the 10-point victory for Clinton in the Keystone State was enough to keep her campaign alive.
"He's weaker now than he was a month ago, but she's got a serious campaign-contribution problem right now," Madonna said, referring to Clinton's $10.3 million campaign debt while Obama has $51 million of on-hand cash. "She's in the red, and that means competing in North Carolina and Indiana will be very difficult."
At Annie Bailey's Irish Pub in downtown Lancaster, a surprisingly upbeat Obama party did not rue the candidate's loss.
"It would have taken a miracle (to beat Clinton)," said Todd Baxter, 38, of Manheim Township. "We fought hard, and we kept it close."
Gray, standing on a chair, told Obama supporters not to fret about Pennsylvania's popular vote but to consider his lead among national delegates.
"Look at this as just a warm-up," he told the crowd.
For Clinton supporters, Obama's relative newness to the national political scene — he was elected to the U.S. Senate just in 2004 — left questions about just what kind of president he could be.
"This new guy is bright and shiny, but we don't know what his track record is," 25-year-old Bree DeStephano of Lancaster said. "Yeah, she has a lot of problems, but Barack hasn't been around long enough."
Many who voted for Obama questioned Clinton's trustworthiness. They point to her embellishment of the 1996 trip she took as first lady to Bosnia. During the Pennsylvania campaign, she said snipers opened fire as she walked on the tarmac, forcing her, daughter Chelsea and the entourage to scurry into safer quarters, even though video evidence refuted her story.
Clinton has since said she misspoke.
"I just think her negative campaigning and her lying, it was all just a low blow," said Rebecca Woestman, 21, of Lancaster, who said health care is her No. 1 issue.
On the Republican side, presumptive GOP nominee John McCain won Pennsylvania with 73 percent of the vote. He did not face a serious challenge from the other two Republicans on the ballot as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee received 11.5 percent of the vote and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, while still in the race, did not campaign extensively here. Paul received 15.8 percent.
McCain has won enough delegates — 1,202 — to be considered the party's presumptive nominee. With all precincts reporting, the unofficial results were:
John McCain .......... 28,461
Ron Paul .............. 9,230
Mike Huckabee ......... 4,521
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
E-mail: dpidgeon@lnpnews.com
