Senator Barack Obama focused on tomorrow’s Mississippi primary for more momentum in his tight race with Senator Hillary Clinton after his win in Wyoming this past Saturday. Obama is favored to win in Mississippi, a southern state where Blacks make up a majority of the Democratic voters. Senator Obama has also shown strength in the Mountain West, winning Idaho, Utah, Colorado and now Wyoming. The two split Nevada and Texas, with Clinton winning the popular vote and Obama more delegates. Senator Obama trounced Senator Clinton in Saturday's Wyoming caucuses, rebounding from last Tuesday’s setbacks in a win that allowed him to retain his all-important delegate lead in his quest to become the U.S.'s first Black president. This is very interesting to me because the media’s focus is only on how well he is doing with the Black voters; however all of these states have very small Black populations. Don’t get it twisted media, Senator Barack Obama is attracting not only Black voters, but also plenty White voters and quite a few young Latinos.
Both Democratic contenders were traveling in different directions today. Senator Obama had rallies planned in Columbus and Jackson, Mississippi, as he tries to pick up the lion's share of the 33 delegates at stake there. Clinton, who campaigned last week in Mississippi, planned to take part in a rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the next major battleground in the campaign. Pennsylvania’s April 22 primary offers the biggest prize left in the nomination race: 158 delegates. The Clinton campaign views Pennsylvania as friendly terrain, similar to neighboring Ohio. Both are industrial states with large numbers of white working-class voters and Democratic governors who are strong supporters of Clinton, who is aiming to become the country's first woman president.
In the overall race for the nomination, Obama leads with 1,578 delegates to Clinton's 1,468, according to the latest tally by The Associated Press. It will take 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic nomination at the party's convention in late August. Senator Obama won seven delegates and Senator Clinton won five delegates in Wyoming. It is unlikely that either candidate will win enough delegates in the remaining contests to secure the nomination outright. Instead, they would need the help of the almost 800 so-called superdelegates (elected party officials) to secure the nomination.
Senator Clinton has hinted recently that if she wins the nomination she would consider sharing the ticket with Obama. But in an interview Friday in Wyoming Senator Obama shied away from that possibility. "Well, — you know, I'm running for president," Obama said. "We have won twice as many states as Senator Clinton, and have a higher popular vote, and I think we can maintain our delegate count. What I am really focused on right now, because all that stuff is premature, is winning this nomination and changing the country. I think that's what people are concerned about."
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