EDITOR'S NOTE: This story features reporting from Michael Cottman in the Washington D.C. area, Thomas Stafford in Atlanta and Sherrel Wheeler Stewart in Birmingham.

By the end of Super Tuesday -- a long Democratic primary election in 22 states -- Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois traded victories in an epic coast-to-coast struggle.

When it was over, Obama won more states, but Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York won perhaps the biggest prize of the night -- California, the biggest state, capitalizing on support from Hispanic voters.

Clinton’s haul included New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey in addition to California, according to NBC News’ projections from official returns and extensive exit-polling data. She also picked up victories in Arkansas where she served as its first lady for years; Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arizona.

Obama bolstered his win in his home state of Illinois with victories in Georgia, Alabama, Minnesota, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Utah, Kansas, North Dakota, Missouri, Alaska and Idaho, NBC News projected.

New Mexico's results were too close to call at press time.

Meanwhile on the Republican side, Arizona Sen. John McCain swept to easy victories in the Northeast and industrial Midwest Tuesday, amassing delegates in what he hoped would be a Super Tuesday march to the Republican presidential nomination.

McCain was declared the winner in Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware and Illinois, seizing all their delegates in winner-take-all contests.

Chief rival Mitt Romney jumped in with a quick win in his home state of Massachusetts -- where he was a one-term governor -- but was outmaneuvered in an old-fashioned state convention and lost unexpectedly in West Virginia to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Huckabee also took Alabama and his home state of Arkansas, and he was locked in close contests with McCain for Georgia and Oklahoma.

Overall, Clinton had 656 delegates to 559 for Obama, out of the 2,025 needed to secure victory at the party convention in Denver. Clinton's advantage is partly due to her lead among so-called superdelegates, members of Congress and other party leaders who are not selected in primaries and caucuses -- and who are also free to change their minds.

Craig Kirby, a Democratic strategist, said the race for delegates and super delegates is on.

"Barack Obama's campaign has truly returned this race to the people," Kirby told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "Both campaigns now have to do retail politics at the most sophisticated level. This type of campaign (courting delegates and super delegates) has not occurred in many, many years."

"I do believe this is a good thing for the party and the country because choices are being made on feelings. It seems people's hearts are talking to them and the movement of change now looks to be a campaign of honest reality," he said.

Alabama and Georgia gave Obama three straight Southern triumphs. Like last month's win in South Carolina, they were powered by black votes.

Obama sounded similar themes while addressing his supporters in Chicago.

"This campaign for the presidency of the United States of America is different," Obama said to cheers and chants. "Our time has come."

Michelle Bernard, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Independent Women’s Forum, said political pundits had to throw conventional wisdom to the sidelines.

"The Democratic electorate appears to have been freed from the notion of identity politics, with women feeling free to vote for a man, African-Americans feeling free to vote for a black man or a white woman, and white voters feeling free to vote for an African-American candidate," Bernard told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

"While the endorsement of Barack Obama by Caroline Kennedy and Ted Kennedy did not lead to a victory for Sen. Obama in states like Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey, Sen. Obama's margin of victory in states from Georgia to North Dakota was decisive, giving him momentum and a psychological edge going into next week's primaries," she said.

"This is a battle that will go on for many more weeks," Bernard added. "The Democratic race is not just a battle for the popular vote, it is a battle for delegates."

Peter C. Groff, publisher of Blackpolicy.org and executive director of the Center for African American Policy at the University of Denver, told BlackAmericaWeb.com Tuesday night that on the Democratic side, Obama needed to show that he is a national candidate.

"He has to be pleased that he actually won states and absorbed delegates in every region of the country," Groff said. "On the flip side, Sen. Clinton won the two biggest prizes: New York and California. She won New York because it's her home state, but, she still won by a smaller margin in her state than Obama did in his base of Illinois since African Americans in New York clearly bolted for Barack. The edge she got in California was due to overwhelming support from women -- primarily White women -- and Latinos."

"The issue for Obama is how he deals with the Latino vote in places like Texas," he added. "He has to find a way to solidify his Latino support in the Lone Star state. He did well in Colorado, where Latinos are 20 percent of the population, so that could help boost his chances of better performance in the Southwest."

The evening began with Obama coasting to an easy victory in Georgia, the first state to close its polls.

His win there followed a familiar Obama pattern: He did well among blacks, younger voters and liberals. African-Americans cast about 52 percent of the state's Democratic votes, and they broke 88 to 11 percent for Obama. He got 39 percent of whites, though he lost to Clinton among white men by only 49 to 46 percent.

Nearly one in five Georgia voters were 18 to 29 years old, and they broke 77 to 21 percent for Obama.

Georgia residents rushed to the polls to vote late Tuesday, many finding machine malfunctions and long lines. Waits lasted for as much as an hour for many who tried to beat the rush and found themselves instead in the thick of it.

Others told BlackAmericaWeb.com that their precincts had been changed in an attempt to decrease lines. That meant they had to move quickly to get to their new destinations.

"I can't believe this," said Tony Owens of Snellville, who said he planned to vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton. "I stood here all this time just to be told I have to go some place else."

Shani St. John, who works for an Atlanta public relations firm, had no worries on her vote. She cast her ballot around 3 p.m. when voting traffic was slow.

"I felt really good," St. John, a Gwinnett resident, said after choosing Sen. Barack Obama. "I find him very inspiring and I really respect his vision."

Propelled by heavy voter turnout in Alabama's urban areas, Obama claimed victory Tuesday in the state's Democratic Primary.

With 83 percent of the votes counted, Obama had 255,822 or 56 percent compared with 186,754 or 41 percent for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Clinton carried the endorsement of one of the state's oldest black political organizations, the Alabama Democratic Conference. Several state political leaders also had lined up to support Clinton. But Rep. Artur Davis, who served as Obama's Alabama campaign director, rallied another group the Alabama New South Coalition and helped organize a ground campaign that led to victory for Obama.

"This was a victory won all over state within the black and white community," Davis said in a television news interview.

Obama drew more than 10,000 to a university auditorium a few days before the election. On Saturday, former President Bill Clinton drew 500 to Miles College, a historically black institution just west of Birmingham.

In Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham, Obama pulled 72 percent of the vote, compared with Clinton's 27 percent. And in Montgomery County, 74 percent of the voters chose Obama compared with Clinton's 25 percent.

Clinton coasted to a win in Oklahoma. Only about 5 percent of Oklahoma's Democratic voters are black, and Clinton rolled up a 62 to 29 percent advantage among white voters, according to exit polls.

The New York senator won Tennessee by appealing to a broad constituency. Exit polls showed her with a 2-to-1 advantage among voters who earn $15,000 to $30,000 annually and a 57 to 35 percent edge among people who called themselves somewhat liberal.

She also did very well with her usual supporters, winning 65 to 24 percent among white voters and 70 to 20 percent among white women. Obama won the black Tennessee vote, 77 to 20 percent.

The crucial Democratic battleground states -- notably New Jersey, New York, Missouri, Massachusetts and California -- were too close to call from exit poll projections in the first hour after polls began to close in the East.

While winning statewide popular-vote margins carries psychological importance for any candidate, neither Clinton nor Obama expected to gain a significant advantage from final results in the all-important convention-delegate count because of the Democrats' complex system of awarding delegates.

Earlier in the day, Clinton's team seemed to anticipate sobering news in some of the Northeastern states. Chief Clinton strategist Mark Penn urged Obama to debate his candidate four times in the next month.

"Our campaign believes it's critically important we continue the debate between Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton," he said.

Obama's camp didn't immediately accept the challenge.

"Our schedule's not going to be dictated by the Clinton campaign," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said.

Obama was hoping that the strengths he'd showed in previous primaries would lead him to win East Coast and Southern states.

Connecticut and Massachusetts have large blocs of liberal voters, as well as voters swayed by the endorsements of the Kennedy family.

Blacks make up an estimated 35 percent of Delaware's Democratic vote and about one-fourth of Tennessee's and Alabama's total.

Early exit polls suggested that the Super Tuesday voting continued a pattern that's been evident throughout the campaign. The race between Clinton and Obama has had the same feel in state after state: Clinton does well among older voters and women, while Obama captures younger and minority voters.

Voters younger than 30, in particular, found themselves irked by what they saw as politics as usual.

Bill Clinton's blasts at Obama in the South Carolina primary, for instance, "just gave some people a bit of pause about confrontational politics," said Karthick Ramakrishnan, assistant professor of political science at the University of California Riverside.

Deborah Edwards, an Amtrak employee from California's San Fernando Valley, was one of those voters. "At first I was for Clinton," she said, "but I don't like how she was putting Obama down."

Obama also benefited from the celebrity culture that those younger voters have known all their lives.

"In California, particularly, star power means a lot," said Mark Baldassare, the president of the Public Policy Institute of California. The combination of Obama and supporters Oprah Winfrey, Caroline Kennedy and Maria Shriver at a rally Sunday at the University of California at Los Angeles was powerful celebrity wattage.

Despite that and palpable momentum, Obama couldn't effectively end Clinton's bid Tuesday. She showed that she had too much support not only from her usual cadre of voters but also from the party establishment.

"Clinton seemed to have the support of every available Latino politician," said Kareem Crayton, assistant professor of law and political science at the University of Southern California, notably Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Meanwhile on the Republican side, Groff said: "There's no way McCain and Huckabee campaigns didn't work together in West Virginia -- perhaps McCain and Huckabee didn't know anything, but their campaigns in West Virginia sure did in an effort to block Romney. There are clear indications that Huckabee played defense to McCain's quaterbacking."

"The problem with Huckabee is that all his wins are in the South, which marginalizes him as the "Southern" candidate -- he's through. It's probably between McCain and Romney if this goes beyond tonight, with Romney not getting much support from the Republican ranks or grassroots," he added.