VIDEO: Bill Clinton held a rally in a supermarket parking lot in an effort to get support for Hillary from “early voters” in Houston.

The Obama campaign just sent out a pair of emails that Senator Obama won a “clear majority of Super Tuesday states” at 13, and that their candidate has won more delegates than Clinton in today’s 22 contests. That is why their victory is “crystal clear” as Senior Advisor told a gaggle of reporters following Obama’s Super Tuesday speech.

Listen to Axelrod on Clinton’s prediction weeks ago that the nomination would be sewn up tonight, on what the American people should take away from today’s results, and on their “victory.”

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As Prepared for Delivery:

Before I begin, I just want to send my condolences to the victims of the storms that hit Tennessee and Arkansas.  They are in our thoughts and in our prayers.

Well, the polls are just closing in California and the votes are still being counted in cities and towns across the country.  But there is one thing on this February night that we do not need the final results to know – our time has come, our movement is real, and change is coming to America.

Only a few hundred miles from here, almost one year ago to the day, we stood on the steps of the Old State Capitol to reaffirm a truth that was spoken there so many generations ago – that a house divided cannot stand; that we are more than a collection of Red States and Blue States; we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

What began as a whisper in Springfield soon carried across the corn fields of Iowa, where farmers and factory workers; students and seniors stood up in numbers we’ve never seen.  They stood up to say that maybe this year, we don’t have to settle for a politics where scoring points is more important than solving problems.  This time we can finally do something about health care we can’t afford or mortgages we can’t pay.  This time can be different.

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It must be a bizarre thing to give a victory speech when you’ve lost more states than you’ve won (at least so far, though the big enchilada of California is still out there). But that’s what Hillary Clinton just did in New York — where she did bring home a solid victory.

She spent much of the time giving her stump speech, talking about the America she sees — one with health care for all and no war in Iraq. But she also talked about fighting to keep the Republicans out of the White House, saying “I won’t let anyone swift boat this country’s future.”

And she congratulated Barack Obama for his victories, saying she looks forward to continuing the campaign and the debate over how to fix the country’s problems.

It was a subdued speech, different than her tone in previous victory speeches in NH and NV — perhaps because she’s had a cough and voice problems for the last several days, which her advisers chalk up to non-stop campaigning.

Catch the highlights here:

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Listened in on a late night conference call with Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson, chief strategist Mark Penn, and field guru Guy Cecil in the filing center tonight. Highlights:

-Wolfson congratulates Obama and staff on a great set of races…calls it a great night for Democrats.

-Penn says they’ve seen wins in the Northeast and in red states, and suggests that part of the reason is late deciders breaking for Hillary. He argues it’s because of concerns about the economy and health care, and claims that her differences with Obama on the latter issue have made a big difference in the last few days.

-Penn says they’re also seeing a lot of people who think she’d be a strong commander in chief, suggesting that’ll help in November –  especially against John McCain.

-They’re encouraged about what they’re seeing in CA, and Cecil says they’re also seeing success in key congressional districts across the country, not just states. That’s crucial in building up a delegate lead.

-The campaign’s not ready to declare any victories, but Wolfson says it is “certainly a strong night.” They continue to say they expect the race go on for awhile (thru March 4’s Ohio/TX contest, at the very least) and that they’ll lead in overall delegates after tonight (including unpledged super-delegates), but won’t commit to whether they’ll hold a lead among pledged delegates.

-Cecil says they’re taking the long term view with 40% of the delegates still up for grabs after tonight… they’re focused on getting to the ultimate goal of 2025. Penn acknowledges that the states between now and March 4 are generally better for Obama.

-on losing the black vote, Penn says they’re going to continue reaching out to every community for votes regardless of what the numbers say. Carson said earlier that they won’t cede the African American vote.

-And asked whether Obama’s win in CT is an upset, Penn says MA is the real upset and that they don’t think losing CT was a surprise.

On a conference call with reporters, Campaign Manager David Plouffe estimates that so far Obama is up 606 pledged delegates to Clinton’s 534 (2,025 are needed to secure the nomination).

“This is a very strong night for us,” Plouffe said. “The fact that we may come out of here with a draw or maybe even a little bit better than that, certainly exceeds our high threshold today, any threshold we set for ourselves and we think it sets us up really well for the next seven days.”

“We may end up winning more delegates, and again, there are still some big states to come in,” he said. California, AZ, CO, and NM have yet to report and Plouffe anticipates it will be close. “So again, a long road to travel here.”

At 11:20pm (CST), Press Secretary Bill Burton sent out the following email to reporters:

“With California not yet counted, we currently lead Clinton by 43 pledged delegates — Obama: 677 – Clinton: 634.  We came into tonight with 63 pledged delegates to Clinton’s 48 pledged delegates.”

So says Clinton spokesman Jay Carson, who expects this thing to go into the wee hours. He called the race “very tight.”

“Look, our numbers showed before South Carolina that we would win, before South Carolina happened, that we’d win by about 50 delegates tonight,” he said, referring to Obama’s huge win on January 26th.

As for New Jersey, which shaped up to be extremely close after many prognosticators assumed Clinton would coast to victory in her neighboring state, Carson said there was never any home-field advantage. “The voters in New Jersey are essentially upscale white voters and African Americans. That is Barack Obama’s wheelhouse.”

FOX is now projecting New Jersey for Hillary, citing a strong Hispanic turnout.

And as usual, the campaign follows with a set of talking points essentially crediting the same factor for their victory.

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Major Garrett walks us through Hillary’s Post-Primary Party — and says there’s a lot you can learn about a campaign from its Rally Room.

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Fox News projects that Hillary Clinton has won in Oklahoma and Tennessee; Barack Obama took Alabama and his home state of Illinois. Missouri, Connecticut, and Delaware all remain too close to call. (UPDATE: FNC decision team had AL too close to call until about 9:30)

More spin from the Clinton campaign on their victories below the fold — they say this demonstrates that Hillary Clinton can compete and win in red states.

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As he walked away from the ballot box at a Chicago elementary school this afternoon, Barack Obama joked to reporters, “It was close, but in the end I went for Obama.” The senator and his wife Michelle stayed at the polling place in the Hyde Park neighborhood for nearly a half an hour after voting, where they greeted students and teachers, poll workers, and other voters as a gaggle or reporters looked on, trying to get his attention.

When he ambled over to the waiting journalists who had set up microphones, he stressed he had time to take just two questions. The senator had a slew of satellite television and radio interviews to do this afternoon - and he squeezed in a game of basketball at Chicago’s East Bank Club. The candidate has something of a tradition of playing games on  caucus and primary days with staff and Secret Service.

Obama was asked to anticipate today’s outcome, as Super Tuesday is traditionally the day that decides a party’s nominee for president. But probably not this year. “I think everybody is flying blind on this one,” he responded.

When the primaries were “one state at a time we could actually track and get a sense of how the election and turnout was going. Here we’ve got 22 states and noody can keep track of it. What we know, though, is that the last couple weeks we’ve seen tremendous excitement,” he explained.
He then added, “My guess is we’ll have a good night.”

Watch Obama vote here:

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Later at a “pen and pad” briefing in the press file adjacent to the site of Obama’s rally tonight, Campaign Manager David Plouffe said as long as it’s close in terms of pledged delegate support, it will be a successful night for Team Obama. They don’t expect to win more states or delegates than Senator Clinton, but look for it to be closer than thought just weeks ago. If they can get by without a severe loss, the Obama campaign would regain a sense of confidence because “we get to states in smaller bite sizes, two or three on a day, where we think we can actually get in there and campaign and have the focus be a little bit more intensive,” Plouffe explained.

But stay tuned. Plouffe stated that anything is possible on Super Tuesday. “Who knows what could happen tonight, there could be some surprises on their side too,” he said.