Obama one step closer to Democratic nomination
Published: May 8, 2008 at 4:29 PM
WASHINGTON, May 8 (UPI) -- Sen. Barack Obama knocked Sen. Hillary Clinton on to the ropes by his showings in the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.
As expected, Obama, D-Ill., won -- and won big -- in North Carolina, 56 percent to 42 percent for Clinton, D-N.Y. That would count as a landslide by any standards. It also confirmed Obama's pattern of winning big against Clinton among Democratic voters across the South.
Clinton managed to hang on to win the Indiana primary -- as she had to do to stay in the race -- handing the senator from Illinois his first loss in a neighboring state. Even a narrow defeat would have finished her completely. But she needed at least a clear 5-point win to be able to plausibly claim she was consistently ahead of Obama in the big industrial states, and she couldn't do it. Obama came within 2 points of her in a cliffhanger finish, taking 49 percent of the vote to Clinton's 51 percent.
Clinton's showing is even poorer when the crossover support to her from Republicans who have re-registered in scores of thousands across the United States as Democrats is factored in. For that dynamic has not been fueled by a sudden enthusiasm for the Democrats among core GOP loyalists. It has been urged on Republicans by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh in his "Operation Chaos."
Limbaugh has called on Republicans to change parties to vote for Clinton in order to keep Obama out. And Ann Coulter, also hugely influential with American conservatives, has also strongly urged support for Clinton, even against Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who already has the Republican presidential nomination locked up.
Clinton was certainly a fighter, as she showed in her repeated comebacks, winning in New Hampshire after losing the Iowa caucuses, and managing a sizable victory over Obama in the bruising Pennsylvania primary.
Yet, somehow, despite winning her party's primaries in the major states of New York, California, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Ohio, she still came out a loser. Obama's campaign ran rings around hers in organizing small-state victories and winning activist caucuses from coast to coast.
The end result is that although Obama has still to show that he can attract traditional Democratic blue-collar, working-class support in any northeastern industrial state, and though he is also very weak in California and the Southwest, he has a clear path to the Democratic presidential nomination.
The media love Obama, while his Republican opponent, John McCain of Arizona, has repeatedly shown a disastrous propensity to dig traps for himself, such as betting big on continuing the Iraq war or sounding as if he would not act to protect homeowners caught up in the subprime financial tsunami. McCain has even aroused the ire of conservative Republicans by trying to take a "high road" and discouraging tough personal attacks on Obama. It is a safe bet that Obama, who like Clinton was raised and shaped by the hard-as-nails Democratic Party machine in Chicago, will not make the same mistake.
The end result is that come November, Obama may win as the most inexperienced and least popular successful presidential candidate the Democrats have run since Jimmy Carter.
© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and his wife Michelle wave to the crowd after Obama delivered election night remarks after winning the North Carolina Primary at a rally at the North Carolina State University in Raleigh on May 6, 2008. Both North Carolina and Indiana held primaries today. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch)
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