Obama rides hot streak into next round

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama on Monday rode a weekend hot streak into the next round of presidential contests, but rival Hillary Clinton shrugged off the setbacks and expressed confidence about her prospects.

Obama is favored over Clinton on Tuesday in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, the latest battlegrounds in a tight back-and-forth struggle between the two candidates for the Democratic nomination in November's election.

At stake in Tuesday's voting are 168 pledged delegates to this summer's nominating conventions. Polls close at 7 p.m. EST in Virginia and at 8 p.m. EST in Maryland and the District.

The two contenders crisscrossed the area around the nation's capital on Monday, hunting for support in a presidential race where momentum has been difficult to sustain.

Obama swept four contests over the weekend in the states of Maine, Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington, extending a slight lead in the battle for pledged delegates who select the nominee.

Obama, an Illinois senator, now has 943 pledged delegates to Clinton's 895, according to a count by MSNBC -- well short of the 2,025 needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.

Clinton, a New York senator, shook up her campaign staff on Sunday, replacing campaign manager Patty Solis Doyle with longtime aide Maggie Williams. But she voiced confidence about her campaign's future.

"If you look at the states that are upcoming I'm very confident," Clinton told reporters at a General Motors plant in White Marsh, Maryland, near Baltimore. "This is an ongoing contest and I feel very good about it."

But Clinton already was looking past the three contests on Tuesday and next week's battles in Wisconsin and Hawaii -- all of which favor Obama -- to focus instead on crucial March 4 contests in the big states of Texas and Ohio.

"I am absolutely looking to Ohio and Texas because we know that those are states where they represent the broad electorate in this country," Clinton said. "They represent the kind of voters that will have to be convinced and won over in the general election."

The two candidates agreed to another one-on-one debate in Austin, Texas, on February 21, two days after the Wisconsin and Hawaii contests. They also will meet in a Cleveland, Ohio, debate on February 26.

Obama's planned meeting with former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who recently dropped his presidential bid but has not made an endorsement, was postponed. Obama said it would be rescheduled.

"We're gonna make it happen," he told reporters during a stop at a coffee shop in Silver Spring, Maryland, in the suburbs of Washington.

Clinton wooed Edwards on Thursday in North Carolina.

LOOKING TO NOVEMBER