Like the millions of others around the world who have been closely following the US presidential primaries, Germans are troubled by the results of Tuesday's primary votes in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island. Like the candidates themselves, they are exhausted and were hoping for some clarity and resolution from the big day.

But clarity is not to be had, and the battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will go on at least until after Pennsylvania's primary on April 22 and perhaps all the way until August's Democratic Party nominating convention in Denver.

The Germans have now trained their sights on the final stages of the race and the mystery of whether Obama will really be able to maintain his lead in the delegate count, as he confidently asserts, or whether the delegates from Florida and Michigan will be seated at the convention and push Clinton over the top. Currently, those delegates hare forbidden by the Democratic National Committee because they moved to hold their primary elections earlier than in previous years in violation of party rules.

Going by a recent poll by public broadcaster ARD, two-thirds of Germans skew Democratic in their preference for the next American president. A new survey by pollster Forsa found that a slight majority would prefer to see Obama in the White House. And that leaves Germans a bit troubled at the moment, at least going by the editorial pages. The idea of John McCain and the Republicans being able to sit back and rest before mustering their forces and finances for the fight against whichever battle-bruised and bloodied Democrat finally eme rges as the party's candidate gives them pause.

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:

"March 4, 2008 might just go down in US political history as the day Republican McCain won the vote to be the 44th president of the United States…"

"With her three victories on Tuesday, Clinton has shown that her aggressive campaign against Obama has paid off. And, so, she will stay in the race. By going on the attack against Obama, though, Clinton has made people once merely irritated by her actually hate her with passion. At the same time, she has also taken care of the task that was reserved for John McCain and the Republicans: destroying Obama's aura of the inspiring bringer of hope. Her absurd suggestion that they could share a ticket -- with her on top -- is nothing but pure cynicism and won't fool anyone. Her desire for a mud-slinging contest is irrepressible."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"In the end, Obama -- whose rhetoric of change (what a surprise!) has such magnetic appeal for younger voters -- once again lost in the more populous states. The fact that he was more closely scrutinized at last had an effect. Of course, Obama is still ahead in terms of delegates and claims that he can't be overtaken. Clinton sees things differently, though, and has even offered him the vice presidential spot in a somewhat roundabout way. What a nice Greek gift!"

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"The battle for the Democratic presidential nomination will continue on until the Pennsylvania primaries in April. Seven long weeks. That's half an eternity. In this time, Obama can gamble it all away. But he can also show that he has the resolve that Clinton claims he lacks. And he must show that he can win over the hard-working America that can't afford either a latte or a laptop. He must win the large state of Pennsylvania, where the Democratic electorate has a similar high percentage of blue collar workers to Ohio's. If Obama succeeds and can mobilize people once again, then he has what it takes to be America's president. In that case, Clinton should bow out of the race. If he fails, he should abandon the race, because it would then be clear that not enough Americans are really willing to trust his high-flying words and that they would prefer to put their faith in seasoned candidates, such as Clinton or McCain."

The financial daily Handelsblatt writes:

"On first glance at least, (Clinton's offer of a shared ticket) looks like the most elegant solution to the dilemma. But, of course, Hillary's 'offer' is also hiding some poison…"

"Simply combining two popular candidates is by no means a recipe for success. The aversion that many Obama supporters have to Clinton could in the end drive a great many of them away from Obama and the Democrats. If you turn the issue completely around, though, it's also questionable whether Clinton alone could secure the votes of the younger generation, which Obama just now succeeded in winning over to the party."

"After three months of election marathoning, the existence of two formidable and almost equally popular candidates has thrown the Democrats into a real predicament. For the Republicans -- with their own 'comeback kid' in John McCain -- this is a fortunate coincidence."

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"The most important lesson of yesterday's vote should be that the influence of the 'momentum' factor that has been so highly praised of late in fact has its limits. Without a doubt, success breeds more success, and every incremental victory helps a candidate out in terms of adding motivation, funding and media attention. However, at the same time, it also causes opposing forces to arise. Expectations climb so high that disappointment at some point becomes inevitable, and the media scrutinizes the current favorite more critically. Obama has now experienced both these things, which Hillary had already lived through at the beginning of her campaign…"