Obama Wins Mississippi Democratic Primary
Barack Obama speaks at a campaign stop at a Gamesa plant in Fairless Hills, Pa., Tuesday. He campaigned in Pennsylvania after making one final stop in Mississippi as voters there headed to the polls. (AP Photo)
Barack Obama won the Mississippi Democratic primary Tuesday, giving him an expected but vital victory in his effort to fracture the momentum Hillary Clinton picked up with her wins one week earlier.
John McCain won on the GOP side, but the Arizona senator has already locked down the nomination and faced no major rivals. Former candidate Mike Huckabee got about 12 percent of the Republican vote.
Polls consistently showed Obama was favored to win in Mississippi. The state’s sizable black electorate — 37 percent of the state’s population, the highest concentration in the nation — was poised to give him a big boost, as it did in other southern states like Georgia and South Carolina.
Though neither candidate scheduled an election-night rally, both campaigns issued statements on Tuesday’s results.
“We congratulate Senator Obama for his win in Mississippi and thank our supporters and volunteers there for their support, hard work, and long hours,” Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams said. “Now we look forward to campaigning in Pennsylvania and around the country as this campaign continues.”
“I am grateful to the people of Mississippi for joining the millions of Americans from every corner of the country who have chosen to turn the page on the failed politics of the past and embrace our movement for change,” Obama said, emphasizing his campaign theme of change.
“Americans need a president in Washington who will bridge our differences instead of exploit them, take on the lobbyists instead of taking their money and concentrate on fighting for your future instead of their own. That’s what I’ve done over the course of my two decades of public service, and that’s the message I’ll bring to Americans in the remaining 10 contests left in this nominating process.”
FOX News exit polls showed race was a factor for many voters. Nearly half the voters in Tuesday’s Democratic primary were black, and nine out of 10 went for Obama, according to exit polls. By contrast, 72 percent of white voters went with Clinton.
A majority of voters said race was not an issue for them, but of those who did, 60 percent went for Obama.
Polls closed in Mississippi after a day of racially charged comments. Obama’s campaign called on 1984 vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, a prominent Clinton supporter, to step down from her position on the Clinton finance committee after she told a California newspaper that Obama was being helped politically by his race.
Obama called the comments “absurd.”
But race wasn’t the only factor in Mississippi. Obama still held the lead among voters casting their decisions on a range of issues. Of those who picked the economy as their top concern, 54 percent went for Obama and 45 percent went for Clinton.
Sixty-seven percent said Obama inspires them the most about the future of their country, and 61 percent said Obama offers the most detailed plan.
Both candidates campaigned in Mississippi. Former Gov. Ray Mabus campaigned with Obama Monday and Tuesday. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., also joined Obama on Tuesday, and said before results came in that the heavily black delta region would go overwhelmingly for the Illinois senator.
Obama won the Wyoming caucuses Saturday, but his campaign was trying to recover from Clinton’s victories in the Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island primaries March 4. The wins kept her campaign alive and signaled the Democratic race could drag on through the final contests June 3, and potentially to the August convention.
Both candidates spent their night in Pennsylvania, which is the next big contest on April 22. That followed campaigning by the two in the Keystone State.
Mississippi’s primary was the last chance to pick up steam before the Pennsylvania race, which offers 156 delegates. That’s the biggest prize left on the primary calendar, and with polls favoring Clinton it poses an opportunity for the New York senator to catch up to Obama in the delegate count. North Carolina votes on May 6 to apportion its 115 pledged delegates.
Obama went into Tuesday’s contest with 1,579 delegates, to 1,473 for Clinton. It takes 2,025 to win the nomination. Before Tuesday’s vote 602 pledged delegates were left to be allocated. With 28 of Mississippi’s 33 delegates allocated, Obama picked up an additional 17 and Clinton 11.
As voters went to the polls in Mississippi, back in Canonsburg, Pa., Bill Clinton told voters just as he did in Ohio and Texas that it’s up to them to save his wife’s candidacy.
“I think she’s got to win a big victory in Pennsylvania,” he said. “I think if she does, she can be nominated, but it’s up to you.”
In Mississippi, turnout was mixed, with the most people showing up in areas that offered both presidential and congressional primaries. Mississippians were voting on two rare open congressional seats.
In some areas, officials said morning rain may have slowed participation.
Mississippi’s secretary of state predicted a light to moderate turnout, but with 98 percent of precincts reporting, more than 407,000 people had voted in the Democratic race and about 128,000 Republicans had gone to the polls. That’s just under 30 percent of total registered voters.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
What is wrong with you Obama supporters? Don’t you ever watch the news? Stories like this were breaking over a year ago and you still vote for Obama? Just in case you seem to have missed the stories or you live under a rock here are a couple of samples of what “the savoir of our country” is all about. These sort of put his wife’s comment, “now I can finally feel good about the country”, in the proper context.
http://www.tucc.org
We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian… Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain “true to our native land,” the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.
The Pastor as well as the membership of Trinity United Church of Christ is committed to a 10-point Vision:
A congregation committed to ADORATION.
A congregation preaching SALVATION.
A congregation actively seeking RECONCILIATION.
A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA.
A congregation committed to BIBLICAL EDUCATION.
A congregation committed to CULTURAL EDUCATION.
A congregation committed to the HISTORICAL EDUCATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN DIASPORA.
A congregation committed to LIBERATION.
A congregation committed to RESTORATION.
A congregation working towards ECONOMIC PARITY.
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ABC NEWS: By BRIAN ROSS and REHAB EL-BURI
March 13, 2008
Obama’s Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11
Obama’s Pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Has a History of What Even Obama’s Campaign Aides Say Is ‘Inflammatory Rhetoric’
Sen. Barack Obama’s pastor says blacks should not sing “God Bless America” but “God damn America.” The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s south side, has a long history of what even Obama’s campaign aides concede is “inflammatory rhetoric,” including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own “terrorism
An ABC News review of dozens of Rev. Wright’s sermons, offered for sale by the church, found repeated denunciations of the U.S. based on what he described as his reading of the Gospels and the treatment of black Americans.
“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people,” he said in a 2003 sermon. “God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”
In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda’s attacks because of its own terrorism.
“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.
“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost,” he told his congregation.
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The truth is one way or the other he is lying, either he was in church on a regular basis and heard these comments or he was not. Regardless he should have known what the church was all about. Obama spent 20 years around jermiah Wright and he doesn’t know?? And you want him to the run the country!!!!!
We live in the greatest country in the world—- it is time for a change!!!!! WHAT?????????
George
WEll OBAMA IS GONNA WIN AND YOU KNOW IT !! THATS WHY REPUBLICAND ARE VOTING FOOR CLINTON BECUSE THEY ARE SCARED THAT OBAMA IS GONNA WIN!! AND HE IS!!
SO GET OVER IT!!
WITH ALL THE DEMOCRATIC HOOPLA ABOUT THE RACE CARD BEING PLAYED BY
OBAMA AND THE CLINTON CAMPAIGN, THINKS THIS RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE
IS IN THE BAG? THEY WILL BE SADLY MISTAKEN.
THERE ARE REAL ISSUES BEING DECIDED THAT WILL MAKE THEM
THE FOIL FOR THE SPOILERS.
THEIR ANTICS AND TACTICS WILL BACKFIRE ON THEM COME NOVEMBER.
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE NOT STUPID, NOR IGNORANT OF THE CHARGES
BEING LEVELED AT THE DEMOCRATS, AND, THE REPUBLICANS, ADMINISTRATION.
THEIR OWN TACTICS AND OBSTRUCTIONISM IN THE SENATE AND THE CONGRESS,
HAVE MADE THEM AND BACKED THEM INTO A CORNER.
NOW THE REPUBLICANS, ALSO HAVE THEIR FAIR SHARE OF BLAME,
BUT THIS IS NOT ABOUT THAT.
IT IS ABOUT WHATS BEST FOR THE COUNTRY AND THE NATION AS A WHOLE, NOT AS SEPERATISTS AND DEVISIVENESS OF; THE, PARTY LINE. NOT, WITHSTANDING THE BACKLASH OF THEIR NEGATIVITY AND CONDENSATION TO THE FAR LEFT WING AND ADAMENT POLITICAL RETORIC.
THAT WILL AFFECT NOTHING BUT, MOORE AND MOVE-ON, THEM TO DEFEAT
AND MORE GRIDLOCK IN THE CONGRESS AND THE SENATE!
WITH VETO AFTER VETO FROM THE WHITE HOUSE FOR THEIR OBNOXIOUS AND ARRAGANT CONDUCT; OF THE COUNTRIES BUSINESS AND OUR, INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY, INTERESTS AROUNT THE WORLD.
DON’T EVER FORGET, AND NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS ADMINISTRATION WHEN THE
PARTY POLITIC OF THE (DEMOCRATS) ARE THE INSTIGATOR OF THE CURRENT CRISIS
IN THE ECONOMIC SECTORS. AS WELL AS,
“THE DEFENSE! OF THIS NATION, AND THE BORDERS.”
AND THE ILLEGAL IMIGRATION, ISSUES ALL ARE THE DECIDING FACTORS!
THEY MUST ADDRESS THESE ISSUES BEFOR THEY GET TO THE NOVEMBER GENERAL ELECTION.
AND MR. McCAIN; IS OUT DOING THE JOB OF THE COUNTRY WITH HIS UPCOMMING
OVERSEAS VISITS THAT, WILL HAVE THE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW TO
STRENGTHEN OUR DEFENSE AND INTERNATIONAL ALLIES SUPPORT FOR THE WAR ON TERROR.
IN OTHER WORDS, BEING THE RIGHT CANDIDATE TO DATE; FOR AS HE IS CONSENTRATING ON; THE WORLD VIEW, AND THE BIG PICTURE, THE DEMOCRATS HAVE IGNORED AND ARE BLIND TO, WITH THEIR HATE OF BUSH AND BASHING THIS COUNTRY WITH THEIR, SOCIALIST DOGMA AND AGENDA.
THEIR CONVENTION AND THE SUPER DELEGATS, WILL NOT GET EITHER ONE OF THEM ELECTED, IN NOVEMBER. FOR THE REPUBLICANS AND THE PEOPLE WILL TAKE ALL THIS INTO CONSIDERATION; FOR THEIR SELECTION IN THE NOVEMBER ELECTION.
END TRANS: MARV!
Stick a fork in Obama I think he’s done. The guy had to know what his paster was about after 20 years. Obama says he was not always at church so therefore he missed all the bad stuff. Do you think just maybe some friend in the church would have said hey Barack did you hear what Pastor Wright preached on last week while you were away? Hey Obama please turn off the oven on your way out.
The black voting pattern is definitely dividing the Democratic Party. Asians, Latinos and Whites voted for Clinton and blacks voted for Obama. Someone here should back off before real damage is done.
Let me tell you something I’m a 100 percent liberal but I swear to you that if hillary wins I will not vote for her my vote will be going for either independent or to the republicans. I dont care if she has obama on her ticket or not. I hate that women with a passion she ia caniven, she tries to win the election by bashen obama.
My mom was a hillary fan when the primaries first started but she seen how hilary started to portray her self and switched to obama imediately.
This election is not about race and Im tired of people saying that. THIS ELECTION IS ABOUT WHO’D BE BEST FOR THE COUNTY. You pick an old wrinky bashen appoinent race card throwa women ova an intellectual down earth man AMERICA YOU ARE CRAZY!!
Republicans even know that Obama is best for the country because republicans are starting to come to the democratic election to vote for hilary to throw obama out the race because they know most democrates wont vote for her.
OBAMA I WISH THE BEST!!!!!!!!
I can’t wait to see Hillary lose!!It is pathetic how she is trying so hard to get nominated..even her husband is trying so hard to get back in the White House. I don’t want to see another Clinton in the White House. Please Obama win it all!!!Just so you know I am a republican but if I have to vote Democrat I would vote for Obama.
[...] saying her comments ‘misconstrued’• Like It or Not, Race Looms Large in Dem Contest• Obama a Hit in Miss.; Hill Works Pa.• Spitzer Loses Superdelegate Status With Resignation• LIVE STREAMS: McCain Event | [...]
I’m confused…..
I thought Obama’s Father was Black and his Mother White….
Is he black or white??