Upcoming Clinton Victories Ring Hollow Against Delegate Math
Sunday: A supporter holds up a sign as Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign event in Eleanor, W. Va. (AP Photo)
Hillary Clinton is campaigning in West Virginia Monday, a day ahead of what is supposed to be a blow-out victory for her in the Mountain State, but one that will be mostly hollow.
Even if Clinton wins 100 percent of the vote and the accompanying 275 delegates available — including superdelegates (some of whom have already committed) — in the six remaining Democratic contests, she will end up short of the 2,025 delegates needed to win the presidential nomination. All the Democratic contests are proportional allocation of delegates. She could, however, still win over some of the roughly 200-plus of the 795 superdelegates still outstanding in all the other states combined.
Even if Florida and Michigan, which were penalized for holding their primaries early, are counted, it is very difficult for Clinton to overcome Barack Obama in the numbers race.
Clinton still fares well among working-class white voters, women and older Americans. Those demographics are expected to carry her to a triumph Tuesday and another in Kentucky next week.
Campaigning in the capital of Charleston, Clinton thanked supporters and reminded them that no Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia. She also reassured volunteers that she’s sticking it out.
“I’ll work hard for you. Get everyone out to vote tomorrow,” she told diners in a restaurant.
Clinton rejects any suggestion that she’s dropping out of the race. She used campaign stops Sunday to remind voters of women who didn’t give up in difficult situations, who fought for equal rights, broke into male-dominated professions and succeeded when others told them to quit.
She quoted Eleanor Roosevelt, telling supporters: “A woman is like a tea bag. You never know strong she is until she is in hot water.” Earlier in the day, she read letters from supporters urging her not to give up.
Her supporters question why Obama hasn’t been able to seal the deal, with so few delegates left to win.
“Why can’t Senator Obama beat Senator Clinton in West Virginia? Voters there have heard that he’s the presumptive nominee,” Clinton campaign strategist Howard Wolfson said on “FOX News Sunday.” “They’ve seen the great press he’s gotten in the past couple of days. Let’s let them decide. They have an opportunity. They want to end this on Tuesday, they’re perfectly capable of it.”
Sen. Joe Lieberman, an Independent Democrat who has offered his support to presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, said Clinton clearly still believes in herself.
“She is a very strong person, she’s very capable. She obviously believes that she is able to be a better president than Senator Obama and also that she has a better chance to beat John McCain. And I think that she just feels that she’s going to stay in there until Senator Obama actually has won it. And she has a right to do that, more power to her,” he said.
David Gergen, former White House adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, said in an AP Broadcast interview in San Francisco, “She says ‘full steam ahead,’ (but) her problem is that she’s running out of track.”
“She was the inevitable nominee and I think they misjudged what they were up against,” Gergen added. “Along comes this phenomenon named Barack Obama and upsets everybody’s calculations. The real problem in the (Clinton) campaign was that they weren’t adaptable, they were not able to change game plan right in the middle once it looked like they had a real fight on their hands.”
For its part the Obama campaign isn’t sweating the concluding races. The candidate campaigned briefly in West Virginia on Monday before heading to Kentucky in what can only be seen as courtesy stops.
While 160 delegates shy of sealing the nomination, Obama instead is focusing on McCain.
Campaign strategist David Axelrod said Obama is “very seriously” considering taking the campaign on the road with McCain for one-on-one town-hall style meetings.
“We’re at war. Our economy is in turmoil. And we’ve got so many challenges that the people of this country deserve a serious discourse, and it shouldn’t be limited necessarily to three kind of very regimented debates in the fall. We ought to begin sooner, and we ought to have a free-flowing conversation about where we want to take this country. So you know, we’re interested in that proposal and eager to sit down and talk about it,” he told “FOX News Sunday.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
I wonder if the Nostradamus prophecy is gonna come true???
Is was prophesized that America will have a “great” leader cloaked in black skin, who shall seek to inspire many. He will succeed and get many rally behind him. But lo and behold, he’ll bring disaster as he is the “evil one”.
Is this President Barrack Obama who Nostradamus is prophesizing?
Hillary is blindly “Staying the course” in a dead-end contest… just like she accused of GWB of doing. She demonstates hypocracy just as easily and frequently as most seasoned corrupt polit
I wasn’t the biggest fan of Mcain, but he’s better than either of these two Liberals. The more people believe that the Govt is going to help them, the more they are going to get screwed over(see Huricane Katrina)
The most complained about things have always been Govt-ran programs. So why would anyone want the Govt to run more programs, let alone our Healthcare?
Maybe, instead of holding our hands out, we should try putting our hands to work and prayer…
The Democratic National Committee seriously needs to revise its primary rules. Every state is running with different rules, they aren’t counting the popular vote in Florida and Michigan, and it has become a charade. The popular vote of all 50 states should be what counts. Most of us detest Senator Obama and cannot tolerate him as the Presidential nominee. WHY NOT LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE??? And as for the delegates and superdelegates who do not go with their state’s popular vote - they should be ashamed of themselves. Everything these people do is for their own political and selfish gain.
To Ted Kennedy and Bill Richardson and all the others….I hope and pray you are never elected to another position again.
It is amazing to me that the Obamabots are making fun, nationally, of the people in West Virginia and Kentucky. I have never seen such mockery made of these folks, hillbillies, rednecks, can’t read, have no teath, on and on. These are the American folks who have fought the wars, given up benefits to help the more underprivileged, given us coal, horse racing, built the railroads to tie our nation together across unbelievable beautiful mountains against all odds, God fearing Christians. These are great people. The hidden truths are coming out again and there will be a backlash. Hillary may decide to run as an Independent. I think she would carry more Independent and Female voters than the other two and she has shown that she can carry the vote of the (less vocal) White Working Class, Elders, Orientals and Latino, etc., etc., etc. And she may carry the republican female voter, too. Could be very interesting. And the race thing. Is it racist for the blacks to overwhelmingly vote for Obama? Of course it is. And apologies can not change that. Are whites watching this and taking notes. Of course they are. Has the sheet been passed on to Wright? Of course it has.
Why is it that the people who say Hillary can not get the number of deliates to win also telk people that Obama has the same problem. Neither can win without the Super Delagetes, and they can change thier mindes any time.
The only reason he been getting all the superdelgets is because they think Aficain Amercain s are going to riot…Hilliary wins in PA did not matter he still end up with more superdelgets…….Obama hasn’t given up but turning his face from the competition like they are not even a contender - how dis-respectful to Hillary and to the rest of the country. He acts as if the leadership of this country is already his. Well it is not over until the very last vote is counted and I will encourage everyone I know to support Hillary in this contest. I agree with your comments
okay, let’s say obama is the democratic nomiee,by the time general election comes about Obama is going to fade away like the way he is doing right now,the idea of change and new politics will be old news and someone will point to him and every one else that the change and new poltics are with the same old people at his side and backing him up.
mccain is going to beat Obama this falll by a huge margin and the DNC is going to blame Hillary for it.They do not understand that american people and fooled and swayed by the smooth talking senator who just fade away as time goes by.
Obama does not have enough delegates to win the nomination and won’t. PERIOD. Doesn’t matter if he has more, he won’t have the necessary 2025 from the primaries to secure the nomination which takes us to the convention where the Super delegates, who really aren’t’ so super, will have to decide who has the best chance of beating McCain. There is no requirement for the supers to vote for the candidate with the most delegates from the primaries. Obama and the press are making an effort to convince us that Obama is the nominee, and it would seem that the majority of Democrats don’t see it that way. This misread of “the will of the people” could be very telling. We’ll see!
Yeah, that’s right, you tellum’ Badboy. They ain’t got no sense!
OBAMA 2008
WE LOVE YOU IN THE ROC