Buckle your seatbelt . Clinton takes three of four
Posted March 5th, 2008
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There was a point, about a week ago, at which Barack Obama looked like an
unstoppable force. Hillary Clinton's double-digit leads in Ohio and Texas
had eva****ated; Obama, the winner of 11 consecutive contests was drawing
the
biggest primary crowds anyone had ever seen; superdelegates were lining up
behind him in greater numbers, and all evidence pointed to a demoralized
Clinton campaign staff, some of which was heading home early every night
rather than endure additional frustration. Hell, Mark Penn was publicly
distancing himself from the campaign he's helping run.
The Democratic Party had begun to look at Barack Obama as the party's
presidential nominee. For that matter, so had the Republican Party and
John
McCain, who had begun to transition to a general-election style campaign.
But as has often been the case in this cycle, actual voters weren't quite
ready to embrace the narrative. The Clinton campaign circled March 4 on
the
calendar a month ago, and the firewall strategy paid dividends.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton defeated Senator Barack Obama in the Ohio
and Texas primaries on Tuesday, ending a string of defeats and allowing
her
to soldier on in a Democratic presidential nomination race that now seems
unlikely to end any time soon.
Mrs. Clinton also won Rhode Island, while Mr. Obama won in Vermont. But
the results mean that Mrs. Clinton won the two states she most needed to
keep her candidacy alive. Her victory in Texas was razor thin and came
early
Wednesday morning after most Americans had gone to bed.
With just about all the precincts re****ting, Clinton beat Obama in Ohio,
54%
to 44%. Her margin in Rhode Island was even bigger, 58% to 40%. In the
Texas
primary, the race was more competitive, with Clinton winning 51% to 47%,
while in the Texas caucuses, with only about a third of the results
available, Obama leads, 52% to 48%. Obama's margin in Vermont, meanwhile,
was pretty huge - 60% to 38%.
Clinton excelled in large part by winning back some of the constituencies
that had begun to jump to Obama - exit polls showed Clinton winning big
among women, Hispanic voters, white voters who don't have a college
education, and the elderly. Obama won blacks, more educated voters,
younger
voters, and those who consider the war in Iraq their top issue.
As decisive as Clinton's impressive victories were, her campaign's
delegate
problem remains a very awkward hurdle.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerre****t.com/archives/14784.html
I do not agree with your sentiment that there has been widespread
corruption
[in Wa****ngton]. I just don't accept that."
-- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), 3/4/08
VERSUS
"You've seen the corruption in Wa****ngton. We have former members of
Congress in federal prison. ... [I]f anybody thinks that special interests
didn't write legislation in Wa****ngton, they didn't work there."
-- McCain, 10/21/07
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