WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodman Clinton and Barack Obama split the spoils in the Nevada caucuses on Saturday while Republican John McCain won a heated battle in South Carolina, in an unpredictable White House race where no candidate has been able to sustain momentum.

In a state famed for its casino hotels, Clinton laid down a winning hand. So did Obama.

Clinton, who would be the first US woman president, captured the popular vote among Democrats in Nevada. Obama, who would be the first black president, edged her out for national convention delegates, taking 13 to her 12.

The pair had split the first two Democratic contests.

“I guess this is how the West was won,” Clinton said in Las Vegas.

No one in either party has claimed the role of favorite in the race to pick the two candidates to contest the Nov. 4 election to succeed President George W. Bush, with the first major state-by-state battles producing multiple winners.

The split decision in Nevada shifts the Democrats’ fight to South Carolina in the South, where Obama is relying on black voters, who make up more than half of the state’s Democratic electorate, to give him a winning edge. Most polls have him leading Clinton in the state.

Clinton 236, Obama 136

But Clinton has also won over many influential black leaders.

After Florida’s Republican primary on Jan. 29, both parties turn their attention to the Feb. 5 “Super Tuesday” round of 22 state contests, a massive shift from the intimate politics of early voting states to coast-to-coast flights and big-budget advertising campaigns.

Overall, Clinton leads the Democrats’ delegate race with 236, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates. Obama has a total of 136.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards is trailing with 50 delegates, making it crucial that he has a strong showing in the upcoming races.

Among the Republicans, McCain, whose campaign was left for dead six months ago, quickly predicted that victory in the first southern primary would help him next week when Florida votes, and again on “Super Tuesday.”

Comeback after 8 years

The Arizona senator defeated former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in a close race in South Carolina—the state where his presidential hopes were destroyed in a bitter 2000 battle that set Bush on a path to the White House.

“It took us a while, but what’s eight years among friends,” McCain told cheering supporters in Charleston.

McCain had 33 percent of the vote to just under 30 percent for his closest rival. He won 19 delegates, to five for Huckabee.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney rolled to victory in Nevada Republican caucuses, winning roughly 50 percent of the vote in a multicandidate field. The other top Republican candidates campaigned little in Nevada.

Women power

Candidates are vying to amass enough delegates in state-by-state contests to secure their party’s presidential nomination at the national convention this summer.

Worries about the economy have taken center stage amid talk of a possible recession in the United States, with each of the candidates offering recovery plans. Bush on Friday proposed about $150 billion in temporary tax breaks and other measures.

In the overall race for Republican delegates, Romney leads with 59, followed by Huckabee with 40 and McCain with 36. A total of 1,191 delegates are needed to secure the Republican nomination.

The Nevada results indicated Clinton’s support among women remained strong. Significantly, nearly two-thirds of Hispanic caucus-goers said they supported her, despite Obama’s backing from a heavily Hispanic casino workers union.

Six out of 10 of these attending the state’s caucuses were women and nearly half of them backed her, according to a survey of caucus attendees. One in three women supported Obama going into the caucuses.

Black vote

Clinton and Obama split men about evenly. More than half of white voters entering the caucuses said they supported Clinton; one in three said they backed Obama. The white vote made up two-thirds of the overall vote.

Black voters heavily favored Obama, with eight out of ten voting for him. But they made up fewer than one in five voters.

That won’t be the case in South Carolina. Obama already was making his case for black voters not to forsake him.

“Sometimes, we’ve got that thing in our heads that says we cannot do something,” he said as his largely black audience shouted “Yes!” in response.

“We have been told for so long it’s not possible. We’ve got to wait for somebody else to tell us it’s possible before we decide it’s possible. But let me tell you, I’m here to say it’s possible. We’re doing it right now. Don’t tell me I can’t do something!”