WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton improved on her win in Pennsylvania’s Democratic primary Friday, picking up two more delegates 10 days after voters went to the polls.

The new delegates increased her margin of victory to 12 delegates, giving Clinton a total of 85 delegates in the primary, according to an analysis of election results by The Associated Press. Sen. Barack Obama won 73 delegates.

The final two delegates could not be awarded before Friday because there were incomplete results in two congressional districts. The Pennsylvania Department of State released results for all congressional districts Friday, with 100 percent of the precincts reporting. The results, however, are still unofficial.

They showed Clinton winning the primary with 54.6 percent of the vote, to 45.4 percent for Obama.

Clinton’s campaign also announced a superdelegate endorsement Friday, by Jaime Gonzalez Jr., a member of the Democratic National Committee from Texas.

Both Clinton and Obama have picked up the pace of superdelegate endorsements since the Pennsylvania primary. Since then, Obama has added 15 superdelegates while Clinton has added 11, according to the AP tally.

Superdelegates are the party and elected officials who will automatically attend the national convention and can support whomever they choose, regardless of what happens in the primaries and caucuses.

Clinton leads in superdelegate endorsements, 269-248. But Obama has won more delegates in primaries and conventions, giving him the overall delegate lead.

The latest count: Obama, 1,736.5; Clinton, 1,605.5. It will take 2,025 delegates to claim the Democratic nomination at the party’s national convention this summer.

The final delegate count in Pennsylvania was delayed because many of the state’s counties are split into multiple congressional districts, and it took time for election workers to assign the votes to the appropriate districts.

Like all Democratic contests, Pennsylvania awards delegates proportionally, based on the statewide vote as well as the vote in individual congressional districts.

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton’s victory in Pennsylvania breathed new life and fresh cash into her run for the Democratic presidential nomination, but only dented rival Barack Obama’s nearly unassailable lead in elected delegates. Despite the long odds, Clinton on Wednesday declared herself the best candidate to defeat Arizona Sen. John McCain, who wrapped up the Republican nomination about two months ago and has been benefiting greatly from the increasingly bitter battle between the Democrats.

“I’m confident that when delegates — as well as voters, like the voters of Pennsylvania just did — ask themselves who’s the stronger candidate against John McCain that I will be the nominee of the Democratic party,” Clinton said during a round of television appearances Wednesday.

As soon as her victory was known Tuesday night, Clinton launched an Internet fundraising campaign, hoping to erase part of her campaign’s heavy debt. She told said Wednesday morning she already had raised $3.5 million.

Later Wednesday, her campaign said she was “on track to raise $10 million online in the 24 hours since” she was declared the victor. The campaign said it was her best fundraising day ever. She has been badly trailing Obama in fundraising, raising about half of what he did in March, the last reporting period.

The two-term New York senator’s popular vote margin in Pennsylvania, which hovered between 9 and 10 percentage points as late returns were tallied Wednesday, gave her at least 82 of the state’s 158 delegates, according to an Associated Press analysis of returns. Obama won at least 73.

That means Obama still leads with 1,723.5 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates. Clinton has 1,592.5, according to the AP tally.

The candidates need 2,025 delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, meaning that the roughly 300 uncommitted superdelegates — out of a total of nearly 800 who have already lined up behind the candidates — were likely to decide the nomination. Superdelegates are party leaders who may choose whomever they like at the Democratic convention in August.

Barring a huge misstep by Obama, many superdelegates would be reluctant to ignore the ballots of the millions of Americans who have voted in record numbers in the most compelling party presidential nominating race in memory. Obama holds the lead in popular votes.

The remaining Democratic contests are primaries in North Carolina, Indiana, Oregon, Kentucky, West Virginia, Montana, South Dakota and Puerto Rico, and caucuses in Guam. Given party rules for apportioning delegates, both candidates would need improbably large victories in all those races to accumulate the necessary pledged delegates.

Both picked up superdelegate endorsements on Wednesday — Obama from Gov. Brad Henry of Oklahoma, who called him an inspirational leader who can unite the United States. Clinton was endorsed by U.S. Rep. John Tanner of Tennessee, co-founder of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative Democrats in Congress.

Tanner, who said the country is facing an economic crisis, praised Clinton in a statement released by her campaign as a leader “who can work with others to return to fiscal sanity.”

Clinton, bidding to be the first woman U.S. president, overcame Obama’s massive spending in Pennsylvania, especially television advertising that cut the former first lady’s early and overwhelming advantage in the state. He too would make history in U.S. politics as the first black to lead the country.

The Pennsylvania matchup was fierce and bitter, which seemed to harden attitudes among Democrats. Only half of each Democrat’s supporters said they would be satisfied if the other Democrat won the nomination, according to interviews with voters as they left polling stations.

“After 14 long months, it’s easy to forget what this campaign’s about from time to time,” Obama told an Evansville, Indiana, rally, Tuesday night, obliquely conceding that the Pennsylvania race turned nasty.

“It’s easy to get caught up in the distractions and the silliness and the tit-for-tat that consumes our politics, the bickering that none of us are entirely immune to, and it trivializes the profound issues: two wars, an economy in recession, a planet in peril, issues that confront our nation. That kind of politics is not why we are here tonight. It’s not why I’m here, and it’s not why you’re here.”

Clinton, when challenged on voter assessments — even among her supporters — that she ran a negative campaign in an interview with a TV news outlet, said: “This is a very civil campaign by any objective standard.”

“That’s just the way campaigns are run,” she said.

The candidates quickly left hard-fought Pennsylvania behind and headed to fresh challenges in Indiana — seen as a tossup — and North Carolina, where the Illinois senator was expected to win easily because of the large population of fellow African Americans. Primaries in those states will be held May 6.

On the Republican side, McCain skipped a vote on a Senate bill seeking equal pay for women, instead campaigning in a poverty-stricken neighborhood in New Orleans. Democrats had delayed the vote to give Clinton and Obama time to return to Washington to support the measure, which would make it easier for women to sue their employers for pay discrimination.

“I am all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation, as is typical of what’s being proposed by my friends on the other side of the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems,” McCain said.

Clinton criticized him, saying he was falling in line with President George W. Bush. “Women are earning less, but Senator McCain is offering more of the same,” she said.

It’s a controversy involving a president and a would-be commander in chief.

But the president, in this case, is an 18-year-old Pennsylvania high school student who claims he was forced to resign as head of his senior class because he skipped gym and left school to see Democratic presidential would-be Barack Obama.

Colin Saltry, a Scranton High School senior, and fellow classmate Joey Daniel reportedly bolted school on Monday to catch a glimpse of the Illinois senator during a campaign stop at “The Glider” restaurant, just minutes away from their school.

Saltry and Daniel say they met Obama, snapped photos with him, and even had the candidate sign excuse slips to present to their teachers.

But their decision to skip out did not sit well with school administrators, who said the students broke the rules by leaving school without permission.

Both Saltry and Daniel were issued one-day suspensions. Saltry also claims school principal Brian McGraw told him to “start writing his resignation letter,” according to the Scranton Times-Tribune Web site.

McGraw reportedly denied the claim and said Saltry voluntarily withdrew as class president.

The Obama campaign declined to comment on the controversy. McGraw was not immediately available for comment.

Meanwhile, students at Scranton High School expressed outrage over Saltry’s resignation, posting online messages of support on his Facebook.com Web page.

The group site, which claims to be the official site for Saltry’s future presidential campaign — “sometime in the next 40 years” — was inundated with postings Wednesday by students angered over their classmate’s punishment.

“Help keep Saltry in office,” one statement read. ” Voice your support here on the wall or on his wall…Thanks for sticking by him and let’s rock 2008 right to the very bitter end!!!”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — Turns out Hillary Rodham Clinton ’s victory Tuesday came with a cash prize.

In the hours after winning Pennsylvania’s Democratic presidential primary, Clinton said she had raised $3 million. The campaign said it was her best overnight performance ever.

Clinton, desperate to fight on against a flush Barack Obama, could certainly use the money.

On Sunday, the campaign revealed that at the end of March it had just over $9 million in the bank and $10 million in debt. Obama had more than $40 million cash on hand at the start of April.

Obama has been able to tap a formidable network of donors that now total more than 1.3 million. Clinton has a smaller donor base and only recently has begun to expand it through Internet solicitation. But a greater share of Clinton’s donors have contributed the maximum $2,300 to the primary allowed by law. That means that to stay within sight of Obama, she has to find new donors — not an easy task this late in a campaign.

The money disparity has been evident. Obama spent more than $11 million in broadcast television ads in Pennsylvania to Clinton’s nearly $5 million. It was the most Obama had spent in any single contest so far.

Both campaigns now hurl themselves into Indiana and North Carolina, which hold primaries May 6. Both campaigns already have been spending money in the state, buying ads, setting up field operations and traveling.

But, as he has in contest after contest, Obama is outspending Clinton on television commercials in those states by a ratio of 2-1. He has been on the air in both states since March 28, spending more than $2 million so far in Indiana and nearly $2 million in North Carolina, according to TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, a political ad tracking firm.

Clinton went up with ads April 3 in North Carolina and April 8 in Indiana.

But if Clinton plans to stay in the contest through June 3, May will be an expensive proposition.

A week after May 6, Nebraska and West Virginia hold primaries. A week later, Kentucky and Oregon have contests.

Obama’s campaign wealth has allowed him to already look ahead to Oregon, which holds its primary May 20. Obama has spent more than $100,000 on television ads in Oregon, where residents have until April 29 to register as new voters. To add to the pressure, Oregon voters cast their votes by mail and ballots will begin arriving in households after May 2.

Election night successes have stimulated donors before. Clinton took in $1 million online during the 24 hours following her New Hampshire primary victory in January. She also raised more than $6 million in the three days following the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday elections, when more than 20 states were in contention.

Still, every time Clinton hits a high water mark in fundraising, Obama manages to best her. She recorded a high of $35 million in February only to see Obama hit a record of $55 million. Last month, bound to be slow after such a fundraising frenzy in February, generated a respectable $20 million for Clinton. Obama raised twice as much.

While Clinton has been outspent on ads, both have spent similar amounts on travel. In March, both posted about $5 million in travel expenses. Clinton has to foot the bill for two active surrogates — her husband, the former president, and their daughter Chelsea — have maintained breakneck schedules campaigning for her.

Obama has forced Clinton to chase him with spending, forcing her hand early by eroding her leads in public opinion polls. Clinton once led in Indiana, but Obama now holds a narrow edge in some polls. Depending on how well she can parlay Tuesday’s victory into cash, some Democratic Party strategists believe Clinton may have to shift her money out of North Carolina and into Indiana in hopes of staving off two losses in one day.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Defeated in Pennsylvania, Barack Obama quickly turned his attention to the next opportunity to dispense with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in hopes of facing the Republican nominee-in-waiting.

“We already know that John McCain offers more of the same,” the Illinois senator told supporters Tuesday night in Evansville. “The question is not whether the other party will bring about change in Washington — the question is, will we?”

More than 7,000 people in an arena at the University of Evansville — rocker John Mellencamp among them — responded by chanting the campaign’s theme, “Yes, we can!”

“Now, it’s up to you, Evansville. Now it’s up to you, Indiana,” Obama said. “You can decide whether we’re going to travel the same worn path, or whether we chart a new course that offers real hope for the future.”

Indiana and North Carolina vote May 6 and are among the last states to voice their preferences in the protracted Democratic nomination fight. Obama leads in the delegate race, but Clinton’s must-win victory in Pennsylvania kept her candidacy alive.

With Clinton favored to win Pennsylvania, Obama’s plane took off from Philadelphia just as the polls were closing. He was in the air when Clinton was declared the winner, and he learned the outcome upon landing.

When Obama took the stage he immediately congratulated Clinton on her victory. The crowd responded with boos.

“No, no. She ran a terrific race,” he said.

Obama took comfort in making the Pennsylvania primary less than a blowout for Clinton, arguing that he was able to register a record number of voters, rally people of all backgrounds to his campaign and narrow Clinton’s lead.

“Six weeks later, we closed the gap,” he said.

He didn’t mention Clinton directly again, but he drew contrasts when he talked about the choice Democrats face as they weigh who is the strongest one to go up against McCain in the fall.

In a double-barreled criticism of both his rivals, the freshman Illinois senator said: “We can’t afford to keep doing what we’ve been doing for another four years. We can’t afford to play the same Washington games with the same Washington players and expect a different result. Not this time. Not now.”

He added: “We can seek to regain not just an office, but the trust of the American people that their leaders in Washington will tell them the truth. That’s the choice in this election.”

Obama then turned to McCain with a full-throated criticism of the Arizona senator, assailing him anew as wrong on Iraq and wrong on the economy.

“We already know what we’re getting from the other party’s nominee,” Obama said, adding that while McCain has offered the country a lifetime of service, “what he’s not offering is any meaningful change from the policies of George W. Bush.”

As Obama’s entourage boarded the plane in Philadelphia, two of his senior advisers wore T-shirts that said “Stop the Drama, Vote Obama.”

BARACK OBAMA: Thank you, everybody.

Listen, there are a couple of “thank yous” I’ve got to say.

(APPLAUSE)

First of all — first of all, it’s good to be back in the Midwest. I am glad to see everybody here in Evansville.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to thank — I want to thank…

(UNKNOWN): We love you, Obama!

OBAMA: I love you back.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to thank John Mellencamp and his wonderful wife, Elaine, for taking the time to be here today, driving up from Bloomington. Give them a big round of applause.

(APPLAUSE)

And I want to thank your wonderful mayor, Jonathan Weinzapfel, and his lovely wife, Patricia, who have been just so gracious to both Michelle and myself.

I have repeatedly said upon first meeting the mayor that this guy’s going somewhere and mainly because, like me, he married up, and his wife is such an asset, but I’m so grateful for his support. It means so much. And Evansville, obviously, is going to be so important to this upcoming election.

Well, I want to thank all of you who are here tonight, but I want to start tonight by congratulating Senator Clinton on her victory this evening, and I want to thank — I want to thank — no, no, she ran a terrific race. I want to thank the hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians who stood with our campaign today.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, there were a lot of folks who didn’t think we could make this a race when it started. They thought we were going to be blown out. But we worked hard, and we traveled across the state to big cities and small towns, to factories and VFW halls.

And now, six weeks later, we closed the gap. We rallied people of every age and race and background to the cause.

(APPLAUSE)

And whether they were inspired for the first time or for the first time in a long time, we registered a record number of voters. And it is those new voters who will lead our party to victory in November.

(APPLAUSE)

These Americans cast their ballots for the same reason you came here tonight, for the same reason that millions of Americans have gone door-to-door and given whatever small amounts they can to this campaign, for the same reason that we began this journey, just a few hundred miles from this spot, on a cold February morning in Springfield: because we believe that the challenges we face are bigger than the smallness of our politics, and we know that this election is our chance to change it.

(APPLAUSE)

After 14 long months, it’s easy to forget — after 14 long months, it’s easy to forget what this campaign’s about from time to time, to lose sight of the fierce urgency of this moment.

It’s easy to get caught up in the distractions and the silliness and the tit-for-tat that consumes our politics, the bickering that none of us are entirely immune to, and it trivializes the profound issues: two wars, an economy in recession, a planet in peril, issues that confront our nation.

That kind of politics is not why we are here tonight. It’s not why I’m here, and it’s not why you’re here. We…

(APPLAUSE)

We are here because of the more than 100 workers in Logansport, Indiana, who just found out that their company has decided to move its entire factory to Taiwan.

We’re here because of the young man I met in Youngsville, North Carolina, who almost lost his home because he has three children with cystic fibrosis and couldn’t pay their medical bills, who still doesn’t have health insurance for himself or his wife, and lives in fear that a single illness could cost them everything.

We’re here because there are families all across this country who are sitting around the kitchen table right now trying to figure out how they’re going to pay their insurance premiums, and their kid’s tuition, and still make the mortgage, so that they’re not the next ones in the neighborhood to put a “For Sale” sign in their front yard…

(APPLAUSE)

… people who will lay awake tonight wondering if next week’s paycheck will cover next month’s bills.

We’re not here to talk about change for change’s sake, but because our families and our communities and our country desperately need it.

We are here because we can’t afford to keep doing what we’ve been doing for another four years.

(APPLAUSE)

We can’t afford to play the same Washington games with the same Washington players and expect a different result. Not this time. Not now.

We already know what we’re getting out of the other party’s nominee. John McCain has offered this country a lifetime of service, and we respect that. But what he’s not offering is any meaningful change from the policies of George W. Bush.

(APPLAUSE)

John McCain believes that George Bush’s Iraq policy is a success, so he’s offering four more years of a war with no exit strategy, a war that’s sending our troops on their third tour, and their fourth tour, and their fifth tour of duty, a war that’s cost us billions of dollars and thousands of lives, thousands more grievously injured, a war that has not made us more safe, but has distracted us from the task at hand in Afghanistan…

(APPLAUSE)

… a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged.

(APPLAUSE)

John McCain said that — John McCain said that George Bush’s economic policies have led to, and I quote, “great progress” over the last seven years. And so he’s promising four more years of tax cuts for CEOs and corporations who didn’t need them and weren’t asking for them, tax cuts that he once voted against because he said they offended his conscience.

Well, they may have stopped offending John McCain’s conscience somewhere along the road to the White House, but George Bush’s economic policies still offend my conscience, and they still offend yours.

Because I don’t think that the 232,000 Americans who’ve lost their jobs this year are seeing great progress the way John McCain has seen it. I don’t think the millions of Americans losing their homes have seen that progress; I don’t think the families without health care and the workers without their pensions have seen that progress.

And if we continue down the same reckless path, I don’t think the future generations who will be saddled with debt will see these years of progress.

We already know John McCain offers more of the same, so the question is not whether the other party will bring about change to Washington. We know they won’t. The question is: Will we? That’s the question we face in this election.

Because — because…

AUDIENCE: Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can!

OBAMA: Because the truth is the challenges we face are not just the fault of one man or one party. I mean, think about it. How many years, how many decades have we been talking about solving our health care crisis? How many presidents have promised to end our dependence on foreign oil?

How many jobs have gone overseas in the ’70s, and the ’80s, and the ’90s, and we still haven’t done anything about it? And we know why. In every election, politicians come to your cities and your towns, and they tell you what you want to hear, and they make big promises, and they lay out all these plans and policies.

But then they go back to Washington when the campaign’s over. Lobbyists spend millions of dollars to get their way. The status quo sets in. And instead of fighting for health care or jobs, Washington ends up fights over the latest distraction of the week.

It happens year after year after year after year, and this is our chance to say, “Not this year.”

(APPLAUSE)

This is our chance to say, “Not this time.”

(APPLAUSE)

We have a choice in this election. We can be a party that says there’s no problem with taking money from Washington lobbyists, from oil lobbyists and drug lobbyists and insurance lobbyists.

We can pretend that they represent real Americans and look the other way when they use their money and influence to stop us from reforming health care or investing in renewal energy for yet another four years.

Or this time we can recognize that you can’t be the champion of working Americans if you’re funded by lobbyists who drown out their voices.

(APPLAUSE)

We can do what we’ve done in this campaign and say we won’t take a dime of their money. We can do what I did in Illinois and in Washington and bring both parties together to rein in their power so we can take our government back. That’s the choice we have in this election.

(APPLAUSE)

We can be a party that thinks the only way to look tough on national security is to talk and act and vote like George Bush and John McCain. We can use fear as a tactic, the threat of terrorism to scare up votes.

Or we can decide that real strength is asking the tough questions before we send our troops in to fight.

(APPLAUSE)

We can see the threats we face for what they are: a call to rally all Americans and all the world against the common challenges of the 21st century, terrorism and nuclear weapons, climate change and poverty, genocide and disease.

That’s what it takes to keep us safe in this world. That’s the real legacy of Roosevelt and Kennedy and Truman. That’s why I’m running for president of the United States of America, to restore that legacy.

(APPLAUSE)

We can be a party that says and does whatever it takes to win the next election. We can calculate and poll-test our positions, tell everyone exactly what they want to hear.

Or we can be the party that doesn’t just focus on how to win, but why we should. We can tell everyone…

(APPLAUSE)

We can tell everyone what they need to hear about the challenges we face. We can seek to regain not just an office, but the trust of the American people, that their leaders in Washington will tell them the truth. That’s the choice in this election.

We can be a party of those who only think like we do and only agree with all our positions. We can continue to slice and dice this country into red states and blue states. We can exploit the divisions that exist in our country for pure political gain.

Or this time we can build on the movement we started in this campaign, a movement that’s united Democrats, independents, Republicans, young, old, rich, poor, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, because one thing I know, from traveling 46 states this campaign season, is that we are not as divided as our politics suggest.

We may have different stories, we may have different backgrounds, but we hold common hopes for the future of this country that we love.

In the end, this election is still our best chance to solve the problems we’ve been talking about for decades, as one nation, as one people. Fourteen months later, that is still what this election is about: millions of Americans who believe we can do better, that we must do better, that that is what’s put us in the position to bring about real change.

And now it’s up to you, Evansville. Now it’s up to you, Indiana. You can decide…

(APPLAUSE)

You can decide whether we’re going to travel the same worn path or whether we will chart a new course that offers real hope for the future. During the course of this campaign, we’ve all learned what my wife reminds me all the time, that I’m not a perfect man. I will not be a perfect president.

And so, while I will always listen to you and be honest with you and fight for you every single day for the next four or eight years…

(APPLAUSE)

… I will also…

(APPLAUSE)

I will also, should I have the opportunity to serve as your president, ask you to be a part of the change that we need, because in my two decades of public service in this country, I have seen time and time again that real change doesn’t begin in the halls of Washington, but on the streets of America.

(APPLAUSE)

It doesn’t happen from the top down, but it happens from the bottom up.

(APPLAUSE)

I also know that real change has never been easy, and it won’t be easy this time either. The status quo in Washington will fight. They will fight harder than ever to divide us and distract us with ads and attacks from now until November.

But don’t ever forget that you have the power to change this country.

(APPLAUSE)

You can make this election about how we’re going to help. You can make this election about how we’re going to help those workers in Logansport, how we’re going to retrain them and educate them, and make our workforce competitive in a global economy.

You can make this election about how we’re going to make health care affordable for that family in North Carolina, how we’re going to help those families sitting around the kitchen table tonight pay their bills and stay in their homes.

You can make this election about how we plan to leave our children, all our children, a planet that’s safer and a world that still sees America the same way my father saw it from across the ocean, as a beacon of all that is good and all that is possible for all of mankind.

(APPLAUSE)

Now is our turn to follow in the footsteps of all those generations who sacrificed and struggled and faced down the greatest odds to perfect our improbable union.

And if we’re willing to do what they did, if we’re willing to shed our cynicism and our doubts and our fears, if we’re willing to believe in what’s possible again, then I believe we won’t just win this primary election, we won’t just win here in Indiana, we won’t just win this election in November, we will change this country, we will change the world, we will keep this country’s promise alive in the 21st century.

(APPLAUSE)

That’s our task; that’s our job. Let’s get to work.

Thank you. May God bless you. God bless the United States of America.