Hillary wins Nevada 51%-45% for 2nd Straight Victory!!!!

Excerpt from MSNBC.COM

LAS VEGAS – Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, capturing strong support from women voters and adding a fresh boost of momentum to her campaign as the Democratic presidential race heads to South Carolina, where she is engaged in a fierce battle with her rival, Senator Barack Obama.

Mrs. Clinton’s victory in Nevada – her second straight win over Mr. Obama – underscored her strength among Hispanic voters, who comprise a large share of the electorate in several upcoming states, as the campaign expands into a coast-to-coast series of 22 contests on Feb. 5.

The New York senator had 51 percent of the vote to Mr. Obama’s 45 percent, with just over 90 percent of the state’s caucuses reporting. John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina, faded to a distant third place with 4 percent of the vote.

“I guess this is how the West was won,” Mrs. Clinton told her supporters during a victory rally at the Planet Hollywood hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. Speaking over loud cheers, she added: “We will all be united in November. I don’t think politics is a game. I don’t think elections are just another day in the calendar.”

Mr. Obama, in a terse statement, barely acknowledged his defeat. “We ran an honest, uplifting campaign in Nevada that focused on the real problems Americans are facing, a campaign that appealed to people’s hopes instead of their fears,” he said. “That’s the campaign we’ll take to South Carolina and across America in the weeks to come, and that’s how we will truly bring about the change this country is hungry for.”

Mr. Obama said that he received more national delegates in Nevada than Mrs. Clinton because of his strong performance across the state, “including rural areas where Democrats have traditionally struggled.”

But some election officials said they were confused about Mr. Obama’s claim that he more delegates than Mrs. Clinton.

“I don’t know why they’re saying that,” said Jill Derby, president of the Nevada State Democratic Party, referring to the Obama campaign. “We don’t select our national delegates the way they’re saying. We won’t select national delegates for a few more months.”

In terms of the popular vote, Mrs. Clinton won most of her support in Nevada’s southern counties, while Mr. Obama was more popular in the north. Clark County, home to Las Vegas and its influential union blocs, was supporting Mrs. Clinton by an 11-point margin with 93 percent of its caucuses reporting.