Obama Leads OR, Clinton Strong in KY
Listening to Barack Obama in Billings, MT today you’d think he had already won the Democratic nomination. He drew distinctions not between himself and Hillary Clinton but used the speech to hit John McCain for “running for George Bush’s third term.”
Obama wove “change” into his remarks (something particularly appealing to young voters) and painted McCain as the status quo candidate. He said, “…you can vote for john McCain and nothing will change we will keep fighting a war in Iraq that has not made us safer we will keep talking tough in Washington while countries like Iran ignore our tough talk or we can turn the page…”
He made little mention of Hillary Clinton who IS still in the race. Clinton and her allies are frustrated that Obama seems to have written them off before he has clinched the delegates he needs to secure the nomination. Clinton told an Oregon TV station this morning, “you can declare yourself anything, but f you don’t have the votes, it doesn’t matter.”
Sure, it’s not likely that Hillary can catch up to Obama but he risks further alienating the millions who have already voted for Hillary-and will still vote for her in KY, OR and other states. Hillary doesn’t draw the number of young voters that Obama does but he’ll need every one of her supporters (young and old) to back him in the fall if he wins the nomination.
She’s still campaigning hard in KY (51 delegates) where she maintains a big lead in the polls. The Real Clear Politics (RCP) average puts her 29 points ahead of Obama. It is a number that’s not insignificant. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/ky/kentucky_democratic_primary-638.html She also said, “So I’m going to make my case and I’m going to make it until we have a nominee, but we’re not going to have one today and we’re not going to have one tomorrow and we’re not going to have one the next day.”
In Oregon, RCP gives Obama an 11 point lead over Clinton, a state with 52 delegates up for grabs and a place he has invested a lot of time and money.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/or/oregon_democratic_primary-298.html
He has welcomed his largest crowds ever in Oregon, reportedly up to 72,000 people turned out. http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/05/obamamayvisit.html
But Bill and Chelsea also gave it a run for their money. According to local reports they drew crowd closer to one thousand backers. http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05/19/bill-chelsea-clinton-stump-in-oregon-for-hillary/
Yea, Obama won Or, but not by much. You all seem to be forgetting that Hillary wins states by huge numbers. Calif, Tx, Oh, Pn, W. Virg, Ky. What’s the matter with everyone. He wouldn’t be ahead if it wasn’t for the SuperDelegates. This has been a joke of a race. Since some Americans have gotten smart and are tired of hearing Obama’s comments, the states that voted later have been changing their minds about him. I will never vote Democrat again.
I will only vote for women and I guess Republicans. But McCain in the fall!!!