On a day when New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton disclosed that she had lent her campaign $5 million to keep up with the Internet-fed coffers of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, their campaign staffs pursued the balancing acts of claiming victory in Tuesday's massive round of Democratic voting, while shunning the label of front-runner.

On the Republican side, Arizona Sen. John McCain was happy to seize the front-runner's standard, and planned to carry it today into a lions' den of GOP conservatives -- many of whom remain deeply wary of the gathering strength of his candidacy.

All three senators had fair reasons to tout their showings Tuesday, as did former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose string of southern victories lent renewed credibility to his Republican campaign. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had a tougher time portraying his situation as anything but a disappointment. He was reported to be meeting with aides yesterday afternoon to plot the next course for his GOP campaign, but gave no public hint of reconsidering his pledge to press on in the face of a daunting delegate margin for Mr. McCain.

Mrs. Clinton appeared to have won the overall popular vote among the 22 states that hosted Super Tuesday contests, although by a razor-thin margin. The ultimately more important delegate contest was still being counted more than 24 hours after the last poll closed.

The Obama campaign contended that the final results would show that he had won the most delegates at stake Tuesday, 845 to 834 for Mrs. Clinton. According to an overall delegate count compiled by the Associated Press, Mrs. Clinton has collected 1,024 delegates so far, including so-called "superdelegates" (elected and party officials), while Mr. Obama has 933.

What was clear amid the unresolved accounting was that neither candidate had scored anything resembling a knockout, and that their bout was destined to continue for rounds and weeks to come -- and perhaps as far as the national convention floor itself.

While boasting of the strength that his campaign had demonstrated Tuesday, Mr. Obama maintained that Mrs. Clinton remained the front-runner in the race. In a news conference in Chicago, he said she was the beneficiary of "a political machine honed for decades."

Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton's chief strategist, offered a conflicting portrayal of the race in a memo distributed yesterday, in which he discussed "Obama's new establishment campaign."

One way in which the Clinton campaign played the traditional role of an underdog yesterday was in its insistence that the two candidates engage in a series of debates over the coming weeks. While debate performances have proved a general strength for Mrs. Clinton, it is customarily the trailing candidate in a political race who demands more joint appearances.

"I don't think anybody's clamoring for more debates," Mr. Obama said in response to the proposal.

In the Gallup Poll's national tracking survey, however, Mrs. Clinton has reclaimed the strong lead she held in mid-January, while the strong surge recorded by Mr. Obama has ebbed.

One area in which Mrs. Clinton is clearly trailing is money, as the news of her loan underscored. Mr. Obama raised $32 million in the month of January, more than twice Mrs. Clinton's total. In an e-mail sent to reporters yesterday, her campaign set a goal of raising $3 million in three days.

"I think the results last night showed the wisdom of that investment," Mrs. Clinton said of her loan during an afternoon news conference in her suburban Virginia headquarters.

The two campaigns will face off again this weekend, in a primary in Louisiana and in caucus contests in Nebraska and Washington. The Obama campaign's organizing prowess has excelled in the caucus setting, as he has won in every caucus so far with the exception of a split result in Nevada last month, where he won more delegates but Mrs. Clinton won the popular vote.

Next Tuesday, Virginia and Maryland as well as the District of Columbia hold primaries. Mrs. Clinton planned a rally in suburban Virginia today, while Mr. Obama's immediate schedule focused on the weekend contests in Louisiana and Washington state.

Many analysts have deemed Mr. Obama as the favorite in each of those contests over the next week. Clinton campaign officials have described the big-state contests a month from now in Texas and Ohio as their best opportunities to score decisive wins against Mr. Obama. After that, Pennsylvania, on April 22, is the next big prize on the nominating calendar.

Today, the three leading Republican contenders are scheduled to speak in Washington, D.C., before the Conservative Political Action Committee. The event will highlight the unease shared by many members of the party's conservative establishment at the prospect of Mr. McCain's increasingly likely nomination.

While the Arizona senator emphasized his conservative credentials as he greeted cheering supporters after the Tuesday competition, his stands on issues such as campaign finance and immigration have rankled conservatives in the past. Statements denouncing a variety of evangelical Christian leaders during his 2000 presidential campaign remain a sore spot for many social conservatives.

Conservative opposition did little to derail his campaign this week, despite a barrage of criticism from often-influential right-wing radio personalities. But besting such opposition in the short run would be a hollow victory for Mr. McCain if the party's conservative base were to sit out the November election because of their past grudges.

The senator's speech today will give him an opportunity to ease the estrangement, while his rivals, Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Romney, try to reassert their claims to be the true conservative candidate.

Mr. McCain was already advertising in Virginia in anticipation of its Tuesday primary. The Louisiana primary Saturday and a Republican-only caucus in Kansas give Mr. Huckabee a chance once again to exploit the southern strength he demonstrated Tuesday.