Alright, pretend to be surprised… Hillary Clinton won the West Virginia primary!
The New York Senator basically swept the contest, taking about 67% of the largely white, working class state. Rival Barack Obama, the man many believe will win the Democratic presidential nomination, only received 26% of the electoral backing.
As many predicted, race proved to be a factor in this particular contest:
The number of white Democratic voters who said race had influenced their choices on Tuesday was among the highest recorded in voter surveys in the nomination fight. Two in 10 white West Virginia voters said race was an important factor in their votes. More than 8 in 10 who said it factored in their votes backed Mrs. Clinton, according to exit polls.
So, basically, West Virginians have no problem declaring their racist tendencies, which, we suppose, deserves a bit of praise. Nothing worse than a closet racist!
Despite this win, Hillary Clinton’s campaign most likely won’t make it to November, as Obama leads in delegates and superdelegates. In fact, he’s received more superdelegates since last Tuesday than regular delegates Clinton gained last night. Clinton, however, will not be deterred and vowed last night to fight to the finish. Said the Senator from West Virginia, “The bottom line is this: The White House is won in the swing states, and I am winning the swing states. I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign.”
Obama, meanwhile, traveled to Missouri – which he won and will prove invaluable this November – and began looking ahead to the general election. He even stood behind a new slogan: “Reclaiming The American Dream.”
Here’s the AP video of Clinton’s victory:
crazylove
There’s no longer a popular vote or delegate count argument for Clinton’s run. This is just a matter of math. At this point, she’s hoping for an Obama meltdown or an anti-democratic (little “d” democratic as in democracy) wave to strike. That or to make the case for the VP slot. On the one hand, I wouldn’t have a problem with her VP, but on the other, the more I’ve thought about it lately, we better pols in the west we should be puttig on the team. Clinton certainly wouldn’t hurt the team , but I am not sure if her help compared to what we could gain out West is worth all this drama.
William
The real story of last night is the Democratic Congressman who was elected in a run-off election in DEEPLY republican district in Mississippi last night.
The Republicans tried to use Obama and Rev. Wright to take down Childers and it backfired. Record turnout gave Childers 54% to the Republican’s 46%.
Whether or not Democrats take the White House, it looks like a very good year for the House and Senate. At least large majorities would keep a (God forbid) President McCain in check.
Nick
yeah, Childers is anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, and all around conservative.
Pardon me for not jumping up and down for someone who will vote Republican more often than not.
And the fact is, if you add up all the people that have voted, Hillary DOES have the popular vote. So, shove your math…
Jesse
I thought they awarded you with cans of pabst blue ribbon in West Virginia instead of delegates. Thus giving clinton a 12 PBR net gain in that state.
Kablamo
Nick, that’s simply not true if you count the caucus votes as well as FL + MI, then Obama still comes out ahead. You have to count those two states and not count the votes in IA, NV, ME, and WA (including my vote) in order to come up with a count in which Clinton is ahead. I think there is some argument for counting FL (although I don’t accept it) and basically no argument for counting MI… but even if you argue for both you can’t simultaneously exclude four other states if you argument is counting all the votes, legitimate or not.