Barack Obama and John McCain easily won primaries last night in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. solidifying their front runner status and bringing both candidates much closer to the nomination of their respective parties:

This is the eighth straight victory for Obama, who is increasingly taking on the mantle of Democratic frontrunner.

"Today, the change we seek swept through the Chesapeake and over the Potomac. We won the state of Maryland. We won the Commonwealth of Virginia. And though we won in Washington D.C., this movement won't stop until there's change in Washington," Obama told supporters at a rally in Madison, Wisc. last night.

"We are bringing together Democrats and Independents and Republicans; blacks and whites; Latinos and Asians; small states and big states; Red States and Blue States into a United States of America," Obama said.
"This is the new American majority."

On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, won primaries in Maryland and Washington, D.C. and battled back insurgent candidate Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, in a Virginia primary made close by a high turnout of conservatives and Christian evangelicals.