And that translated into a bad night for Mitt Romney. While Romney grabbed Utah as expected - along with Minnesota, Colorado and his home state of Massachusetts - it was McCain who claimed the biggest prizes, with Mike Huckabee playing a supporting role.

Romney vowed publicly to trudge on despite the series of disappointing losses, even after his wife, Ann, hinted that the future was no longer quite so clear.

"I think she's wrong; one thing that's clear is this campaign is going on," Romney told supporters in Boston. "I think there's some people that thought it was all going to be done tonight, but it's not done tonight."

McCain, meanwhile, relished his new spot as the leader after many pundits had declared his candidacy dead last year.

"Tonight I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party front-runner for the nomination of the president of the United States. And I really don't mind that one bit," McCain told a revved-up crowd in Arizona that included Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.

With Romney taking so few of the key states on Super Tuesday, political observers were doubting the former head of the 2002 Winter Olympics could turn around his campaign from the trouncing he sustained.

Romney may plan to continue on, but the GOP establishment likely will be calling on him to suspend his campaign, said Allan Lichtman, a professor of history at American University in Washington, D.C.

"There's going to be a tremendous push in the Republican Party to unite behind the front-runner," Lichtman said. McCain may not be the establishment's dream nominee, but it's better to seem unified and not fractured, Lichtman added.

Romney is "young" and can run again if he wants, Lichtman said, guessing he probably doesn't want to burn a second chance at a run.

"With the small caveat that strange things can happen, I think we're looking at the end of the Republican race," Lichtman said.

McCain carried the largest states on Tuesday, including California and New York, and also won contests across the map.

"McCain should come out of this with a lot of momentum that will be hard to catch up with," said Jennifer Duffy, senior editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Cook Political Report.

But Romney still may soldier on, she adds, because he has tremendous financial resources.

"What keeps Romney in this game is money, his ability to fund the campaign, keep the lights on," Duffy said. "It's hard for him to make a case after today [to continue], but my guess is he may."

Huckabee, on the other hand, surprised many pundits on Tuesday, nabbing more states than expected and taking a delegate lead over Romney.

Huckabee lobbed veiled shots at Romney in his victory speech in Little Rock, Ark., taking away his rival's line that the race is a two-man contest between Romney and McCain.

"Over the past few days, a lot of people have been trying to say this is a two-man race," Huckabee said. "Well, you know what? It is - and we're in it."

Huckabee, who has been running a shoestring campaign, also dinged Romney for spending millions to try to buy the election.

"Tonight we are making sure America understands that sometimes one small, smooth stone is a whole lot more affective than a ton of armor," Huckabee said.

The hostility between the Romney camp and the McCain and Huckabee campaigns boiled over earlier Tuesday after Romney's campaign manager slammed the other competitors for a "backroom deal" to win the West Virginia delegates.

Romney won the first balloting there but didn't grab enough of the votes on a second ballot, and McCain supporters switched to backing Huckabee.

"Sadly, Sen. McCain cut a Washington backroom deal in a way that once again underscores his legacy of working against Republicans who are interested in championing conservative policies and rebuilding the party," Romney campaign manager Beth Myers said.

A McCain campaign spokesman shot back that it was disappointing the Romney camp spent "so much gold for yet another silver" - a retort aimed at Romney's use of Olympic imagery to describe his earlier wins and second-place showings.

tburr@sltrib.com