An estimated 2,218 Democratic caucus participants flood the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds in 2008. Barack Obama won more than 70 percent of the votes in Kansas caucuses.

Chicago ? As a former president might put it, maybe it depends on what the definition of “win” is.

Was it winning states or winning delegates? Was it coming closer than expected and winning delegates all the same? Was it losing where a candidate was expected to win or winning where a candidate was expected to lose?

One clear verdict: the near-national primary of Super Tuesday provided candidates in both parties with enough ammunition to make plausible claims they had done well enough to move on to the next round of primaries. And make claims they did.

The contenders

The breadth of the race that stretched from Alaska to Massachusetts, and the limited time to campaign in any one place, favored the better known candidates in both parties, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. John McCain, with McCain gaining significantly more advantage over his rivals than Clinton did over hers, Sen. Barack Obama.

McCain continued his march toward the nomination, which, if not inevitable, now appears more likely than not. Mike Huckabee had a strong run in the South, winning several states and possibly burnishing his credentials as a running mate. Mitt Romney added wins where expected, but also was battling McCain to win California. He vowed to go forward.

Democrats

On the Democratic side, the race between Clinton and Obama has become in many ways a contest between obligation and enthusiasm.

A long fight would not seem to be helpful to the Democrats if the Republican race ends earlier, but this is an unusual year with an unusual level of interest.

Clinton’s crowds seem to come out of duty to support her barrier-breaking candidacy, and loyalty to the family that is near royalty in the Democratic Party.

Obama’s supporters come out with energy, by the tens of thousands, even in unlikely places for a Democrat to be a draw, like the 15,000 who surged to his rally in Boise, Idaho. Obama has lit a prairie fire.

Those two powerful, emotional pulls are framing the Democratic race, but without any durable trend. Sometimes obligation wins, sometimes enthusiasm.

Republicans

The race for the Republican nomination for president is long on obligation. It is a central conceit of the campaign of McCain, who had gone into Super Tuesday hoping to all but close out the GOP contest. Now, instead of working to shore up his party, he has to think about upcoming contests.

Even some Republicans concede that they are more interested in watching the Democratic race play out.

“I use expectation vs. aspiration,” said Don Sipple, a California-based GOP consultant. “Obama, beyond the obvious attraction of him as a person, his campaign is packed with symbols that appeal to aspirational voters. He’s the ultimate opportunity candidate, whereas you have an expectation of Hillary as a workmanlike, less than romantic figure.

“Somebody soars, and somebody walks,” he said.

Issues

There is very little distance between Clinton and Obama on the major issues such as the war and health care. The campaign is much more personal, and that shows.

Phenomenon candidates rarely last as long as Obama. Gary Hart in 1984 and Howard Dean in 2004 both lost out to the candidates who appealed more to obligation, the party stalwart Walter Mondale, and then the long-serving Sen. John Kerry.

Obama has proven there is something larger at work. It shows in his standing, the fact that he is broadening his appeal and the fact that he continues to raise record-setting amounts of money. The Clinton campaign can’t quite seem to figure out how it wants to campaign against him. Clinton seems to try to kill him off with kindness one day, then shred his record the next.

For its part, Obama’s campaign is speaking in an easily decipherable code when it talks about his generational appeal, his motivation of young voters and his ability to appeal to a much broader range of voters, accenting fairly fixed opinions that Clinton is polarizing.

But Obama’s challenges are clear. He needs to appeal to lower-income white voters and to Latinos, with very little time to develop a new message that would resonate with them.

Republicans face a situation where they need to close the enthusiasm gap. It will be difficult given how vocal and disgruntled some of the leaders of the conservative movement have been about McCain. They find themselves in the rather odd position of having Huckabee and Romney splitting the votes of the more conservative base in ways that are propelling McCain.

The next major test for Democrats will be next Tuesday when Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia vote. All present more opportunity for enthusiasm than obligation. But obligation is a stubborn thing.