Senator Hillary Clinton coasted to a large but largely symbolic victory in working-class West Virginia on Tuesday, handing Senator Barack Obama one of the worst defeats of the campaign yet scarcely slowing his march toward the Democratic presidential nomination. She coupled praise for Senator Obama (something new – maybe she is going for vice-president after all) with a pledge to persevere in a campaign in which she has become the decided underdog. "This race isn't over yet," she said. "Neither of us has the total delegates it takes to win."
Senator Obama, in the mean time, looked ahead to the Oregon primary later in the month and to the general election campaign against Republican John McCain. "This is our chance to build a new majority of Democrats and independents and Republicans who know that four more years of George Bush just won't do," Obama said in Missouri, which looms as a battleground state in November.
With votes from 69 percent of West Virginia's precincts counted, Senator Clinton was winning 66 percent of the vote, to 27 percent for Senator Obama. Her triumph approached the 70 percent of the vote she gained in Arkansas, her best state to date. It came courtesy of an overwhelmingly white electorate comprised of the kinds of voters who have favored her throughout the primaries. Nearly a quarter were 60 or older, and a similar number had no education beyond high school. More than half were in families with incomes of $50,000 or less, and the former first lady was wining a whopping 69 percent of their votes.
Senator Clinton won at least 16 of the 28 delegates at stake in West Virginia, to seven for Obama, with 5 more to be allocated. Senator Obama leads with 1,875.5 delegates to 1,712 for Senator Clinton. It takes 2,026 to clinch the nomination at the party convention in Denver this summer, a total raised by one to reflect the election of Democrat Travis Childers to Congress in a special election in Mississippi during the evening.
Senator Clinton's contended that her strength with blue-collar voters, already demonstrated in primaries in Ohio and Pennsylvania, makes her the more electable candidate in the fall. That is fine if one section of the country is all it takes to win the nomination (Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, Southern Indiana, West Virginia and it will be the same in Kentucky – low income, old female, Archie Bunker-types). But, I think they count everything. Senator Obama has won more primary/caucus contest 30 to 21; he leads in superdelegates, the popular vote and over delegates. What? And he is only 143 delegates away from the clinching number 2026 to gain the nomination. About 250 superdelegates remain publicly uncommitted. But there have been a study number of them endorsing Senator since his win in North Carolina.
The delegate tally aside, the former first lady struggled to overcome an emerging Democratic consensus that Senator Obama effectively wrapped up the nomination last week with a victory in the North Carolina primary and a narrow loss in Indiana. Even though he lost West Virginia, he picked up four superdelegates during the day, including Roy Romer, former Democratic Party chairman. "This race, I believe, is over," Romer told reporters on a conference call. He said only Clinton can decide when to withdraw, but he added: "There is a time we need to end it and direct ourselves to the general election. I think that time is now."
Only five more primaries remain on the calendar, beginning next week in Kentucky and Oregon, then Puerto Rico on June 1 and Montana and South Dakota two days later. There's another important date on the calendar, though, the May 31 meeting of a convention committee that will hear Senator Clinton's appeal to seat the delegations from disputed primaries in Florida and Michigan. Senator Clinton has long argued to have the delegates seated — a decision that would cut into Obama's delegate advantage — even though the primaries were held so early in the year that they violated Democratic Party rules. And all the candidates, including Senator Clinton, agreed to not seat the delegates from both states. That is the only piece of hope she has left.
In recent weeks, Senator Obama has signaled a willingness to compromise on the issue as he has become more confident of his ultimate victory in the fight for the nomination. Both candidates shook hands on the Senate floor Tuesday after interrupting their campaigns for a few hours to vote on energy-related bills. In the days since close to 30 superdelegates have swung behind Senator Obama; evidence that party officials are beginning to unite around the Illinois senator who is seeking to become the first Black to win a major party presidential nomination. Three of his new supporters formerly backed Senator Clinton, who surrendered her lead in superdelegates late last week for the first time since the campaign began.
Senator Obama had said several days ago he expected Senator Clinton to win by significant margins in West Virginia and then in Kentucky, which holds its primary next week. He devoted more time to Oregon, which also holds a primary next week, and announced plans to campaign in several other states that loom as battlegrounds in the fall against Senator McCain. Among them are Florida and Michigan, two states that held early primaries in defiance of national Democratic Party rules. The two combined have 44 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, and Senator Obama has not yet campaigned in either. Senator Obama has thus signaled that he is the Democratic candidate and is now campaigning against Senator McCain.
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