Obama touts victory over 'politics of division'

— -- The good news came early for Democrat Barack Obama, as networks called him the winner of the North Carolina primary a minute after the polls closed. Early returns suggested the victory — his first since controversial statements by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright — was a sizable one.

Hillary Rodham Clinton did not get the "game-changer" she sought in North Carolina. She was counting on an Indiana win to continue her quest to convince the party she should be the nominee, despite Obama's lead in convention delegates and states won. Even two hours after polls closed, Indiana was too close to call.

Obama told supporters in Raleigh, N.C., his victory proves "it's possible to overcome the politics of division and distraction; that it's possible to overcome the same old negative attacks that are always about scoring points and never about solving our problems."

David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, said the win "continues our momentum toward the nomination." He predicted superdelegates, the party VIPs who will ultimately decide the nominee, would continue to come on board and the race would be settled before the convention in August.

Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said on MSNBC that the superdelegates and voters will be asking "who is it that is best to take on (presumptive Republican nominee) John McCain in the fall? … They want to make sure a Democrat wins the White House. And her economic message is the message that's working."

Both candidates spent Tuesday in Indiana. Obama did nearly two dozen radio and TV interviews, visited a Greenville restaurant and stopped at a polling place in Indianapolis before heading to Raleigh to celebrate. Clinton visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The economy was by far the most important issue in both states and provided fodder for a policy disagreement between the candidates. Clinton, adapting an idea from presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, proposed suspending the 18.5-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax for three months this summer and taxing oil companies to replace the money, which goes to road repair.