Obama cruises as Clinton shakes up campaign

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama on Sunday tried to translate weekend victories into momentum going into this week's U.S. presidential nominating contests, while Republican John McCain's march hit a few bumps in the road.

After a string of losses, Democrat Hillary Clinton announced a staff shake-up on Sunday and replaced her campaign manager, though aides played down any notion the move was a sign of trouble for the New York senator in her tight fight with Obama.

McCain, an Arizona senator who became the likely Republican nominee last week when his chief rival dropped out, lost two of three state contests on Saturday but got a vote of confidence from President George W. Bush on Sunday.

Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black president, scored decisive wins over Clinton on Saturday in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state in the race to be the Democratic nominee for the November 4 election.

Clinton, who would be the first woman president, said in a statement that Maggie Williams, a top aide when she was first lady, had taken over from Patti Solis Doyle as campaign manager. Solis Doyle will move into the role of senior adviser.

Clinton did not spell out why Solis Doyle was being replaced. The move comes as Obama raked in millions in campaign contributions in addition to the three Saturday wins.

A Clinton spokesman said the move did not reflect any change in the candidate's overall strategy.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee beat McCain on Saturday in Louisiana and Kansas and ran a very close second in Washington state. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, far behind in the Republican race, was a close third in Washington.

"It was great day for us," Huckabee said on Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press show. "This thing could go to the convention."

While saying he was staying in the race, Huckabee added that he would bow out if McCain won the 1,191 delegates needed to capture the Republican nomination at the party's national convention in September.

McCain has grabbed just less than two-thirds of that number of delegates with more than 20 of the 50 states still to hold Republican nominating races.

Bush, a Republican, has refused to endorse a candidate while Huckabee is still in the race but came close on Friday when he told a conservative conference, without mentioning names, that the party would soon have a nominee and needed to unite behind him.

FOCUS ON TUESDAY

Bush tried on Sunday to calm fears among conservatives that McCain was too liberal by calling him a "true conservative."

"If John's the nominee, he has got some convincing to do to convince people that he is a solid conservative," Bush said on Fox News Sunday. "And I'll be glad to help him if he's the nominee, because he is a conservative."

Democrats held a nominating race in Maine on Sunday but the next big voting day comes on Tuesday around the U.S. capital. Both parties have contests in Washington, D.C., and neighboring states Virginia and Maryland.

Obama was running ahead in opinion polls and was expected to do well in the Tuesday balloting. He tried to stress the breadth of his wins as he campaigned in the area.

Obama told a rally in Alexandria, Virginia, he would be better able to bring people together to make the policy changes that Democrats want.

"Keep in mind we had Bill Clinton as president when in '94 we lost the House, we lost the Senate, we lost governorships, we lost state houses and so regardless of what policies they wanted to promote, they didn't have a working majority for change," he said.

Campaigning in Manassas, Virginia, on Sunday, Clinton said she was ready to go on Day One, blamed Bush for a series of problems and linked herself with popular Democratic President Harry Truman, who served from 1945 to 1953.

"I had a historian tell me the other day that it's probably not been since Harry Truman that we had a president who inherits two wars, an economy in trouble, millions of people losing their health care, millions of families on the brink of losing their homes," she said.

Clinton and Obama are about even in pledged delegates but both are well short of the 2,025 needed to win the Democratic nomination.

McCain virtually clinched the race on Thursday with the withdrawal of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. But many conservative Republicans are unhappy with the prospect because of McCain's past voting record on such issues as taxes, immigration, stem cell research and campaign law reform.

(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, Caren Bohan and Jeff Mason; editing by Philip Barbara)

(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)