Reasons
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — Barack Obama swept Hillary Clinton in three more primaries in the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, giving him eight consecutive wins and a clear lead in the race for delegates.
Obama’s decisive victories yesterday in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., follow wins in five contests over the weekend. The next elections are Feb. 19 in Hawaii, Obama’s childhood home, and Wisconsin, where he has the support of the state’s governor.
“This movement won’t stop until there’s change in Washington, D.C., and tonight we’re on our way,” Obama, 46, told a crowd of more than 19,000 backers at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin. “We have now won east and west and north and south and across the heartland of this country we love.”
Clinton, 60, is looking ahead to a March 4 showdown with Obama in the delegate-rich states of Texas and Ohio to halt his progress. After her string of losses, she needs wins in both states to bring momentum back to her campaign. She’s already begun a staff shakeup, with deputy campaign manager Mike Henry last night becoming the second top aide to leave.
“We’re going to sweep across Texas in the next three weeks, bringing our message about what we need in America,” the New York senator told supporters last night in El Paso. “I’m tested, I’m ready, let’s make it happen.”
McCain Beats Huckabee
On the Republican side, John McCain, 71, defeated former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, 52, in all three contests, as the Arizona senator moves to seal his party’s presidential nomination.
“We are approaching the end of the first half of this election on quite an upswing, McCain said to his supporters in Alexandria, Virginia.
Huckabee’s strength in parts of Virginia, however, showed there are still a number of conservatives in the Republican Party who haven’t united behind McCain.
With last night’s results, Obama now leads Clinton in the popular vote from the 35 states and territories that have gone to the polls. The Illinois senator has just over 9 million votes compared with Clinton’s slightly more than 8.5 million. That excludes Michigan and Florida, where neither campaigned because the Democratic National Committee penalized the states for holding primaries earlier than party rules allowed.
Ahead on Delegates
Obama also has a clear advantage over Clinton in the race for the delegates who will cast the votes for the party’s nominee at the Democratic National Convention in August.
An unofficial estimate by the independent, non-partisan Web site thegreenpapers.com shows Obama ahead of Clinton by 953 delegates to 913. That includes most of the Virginia allocation and part of Washington’s, though not Maryland’s total. The tally doesn’t include the 796 super delegates who aren’t bound by election results. A candidate needs 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic nomination.
Obama press secretary Bill Burton said in an e-mail last night that his candidate leads Clinton by at least 124 pledged delegates after last night’s results.
While Obama has picked up a wave of momentum in the recent contests following the 22 races on Feb. 5, when the two essentially battled to a draw, polls show Clinton leading in Texas and Ohio.
New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, a Clinton supporter, said in an interview yesterday that strong performances in Ohio and Pennsylvania are particularly critical for her because of the states’ importance to Democratic chances of winning the presidency in November. No Democratic presidential candidate has carried Texas since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Decisive Wins
Obama defeated Clinton by a wider-than-expected margin of 64 percent to 36 percent in Virginia. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, he won 59 percent of the vote in Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County, the most-populous area of the state. Fairfax’s educated, suburban electorate closely resembles some counties in Pennsylvania, which will hold its presidential primary on April 22.
“We knew that the states following Super Tuesday were Obama states, but he has won them more decisively than anticipated,” said John Fortier, a political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
“Without a solid win” in Texas and Ohio, Clinton “will trail in delegates, and the election could really turn against her,” he said.
McCain now has more than 800 delegates. Both Virginia and Washington, D.C., award all delegates to the winner of the Republican primary. The candidate needs 1,191 delegates for the nomination.
`Strong Showing’
McCain’s campaign manager congratulated Huckabee on his “strong showing” and expressed confidence in the senator’s campaign.
“John McCain will be the Republican nominee for president,” Rick Davis said in a statement. “He will continue to campaign hard in the coming contests across the country and unify the Republican Party for victory in November.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aLDrGXQTlMJw&refer=home
I saw how the American Army beat the Army from Japan to win custody of the Islands.
Mr. R, was right about the wall in the drive way. My dad does it too, but instead of a snow wall he puts wood. It works because the snow does not go in the drive way.
The Giants Don’t Stand A Chance Against The Packers.
