March 4th: Why Hillary Still Lags Behind Obama

CLINTON WON BUT FAILED TO CLOSE GAP

Congratulations to Hillary Clinton on her wins. After a 12 state winning streak by Barack Obama, she has managed 2.5 wins (Rhode Island, Ohio and step 1 of Texas). The problem is, she needed to win by larger margins in order to gain more delegates.

  • In spite of media headlines touting Texas for Clinton, step 2 of Texas seems to be going to Obama, so they may have to call Texas a draw. Texas allots 126 delegates in the primary (step 1) and 67 delegates in the caucus (step 2).

There are those who will call Hillary “the Comeback Kid”, and declare her momentum back on track. The truth is, Ohio and Rhode Island were great wins for Clinton morale, but a bust for delegates. Delegates, after all, are what this race is about.

Obama had a 100 delegate lead before March 4th. Here is what changed on March 4th:

  • Texas primary: 64 Clinton, 62 Obama (+2 Clinton)
  • Texas caucus:  38 Obama, 29 Clinton (+9 Obama)
  • Ohio primary: 75 Clinton, 66 Obama (+9 Clinton)
  • Rhode Island primary: 13 Clinton, 8 Obama (+5 Clinton)
  • Vermont primary: 9 Obama, 6 Clinton (+3 Obama)

March 4th primaries gave Hillary Clinton an addition of 4 delegates more than Obama gained, which still leaves Obama with a 96 delegate lead. Additionally, Obama stands to gain his own momentum back with upcoming primaries in Wyoming and Mississippi.

The only thing this race proved is we have another several weeks of a drawn out (and dirty) race, while the candidates battle for votes and delegates. Neither will be able to handily secure the 2025 delegates needed to seal the nomination, so at some point superdelegates will need to step in to decide what is best for the democratic party.

In that case, clearly the candidate with the most pledged delegates, should be the victor. That will be a tough task for Hillary Clinton, unless she manages a few landslide victories.

SOURCE: Results Center

Also see:

CNN Delegate Counter

Newsweek: Hillary’s Math Problem

Published in: on March 5, 2008 at 1:57 pm Comments (0)
Tags: , , , , ,

The Truth About Obama, Canada & NAFTA

Barack Obama has been hit hard in the last few days by false rumors that a senior member of his campaign phoned a Canadian ambassador in Washington to advise him “not be worried about what Obama says about NAFTA.” The details, obtained by a leaked memo, had been reported by Canada’s CTV News.

The official memo from the meeting emerged later, refuting the claim, but the damage had already been done. The negative news dominated the headlines for days and Hillary Clinton seized the opportunity to plug it into speeches and attack Obama’s authenticity.

“I don’t just criticize [NAFTA]. I don’t have my campaign go tell a foreign government behind closed doors: `That’s just politics. Don’t pay attention to it’”

The truth? The Canadian diplomat invited the Obama campaign official, Austan Goolsbee, for a general meeting that was held in Chicago, not Washington.

Furthermore, the official memo from the meeting indicates that Goolsbee talked about the need for a limited renegotiation of the NAFTA agreement, “in favour of strengthening/clarifying language on labour mobility and environment and trying to establish these as more `core’ principles of the agreement.” This is consistent with what Obama has been saying about NAFTA in public.

The Chicago consulate also issued a statement saying,

“there was no intention to convey, in any way, that Senator Obama and his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed in private.” (more…)

Published in: on at 9:27 am Comments (1)
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,