Idaho Examiner: Tough Times Ahead for Clinton"Common Sense News"

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US Elections

Tough Times Ahead for Clinton

Posted on: May 07, 2008

Hillary Clinton’s narrow victory in the Indiana primary has literally blurred her White House hopes after failing to knock Obama by a bigger margin casting doubts in the minds of uncommitted superdelegates. The results meant Clinton missed her best chance to narrow Obama’s lead in pledged delegates, popular votes and party leaders who will help pick the nominee at Augusts’ convention.

Hillary Clinton hopes that as the overall delegate count remains close, a two-state sweep would change her image among Democratic superdelegates that ultimately will decide the race. But it would be improbable for Hillary Clinton to pass Obama in the number of pledged delegates even if she wins every remaining primary.

An MSNBC count showed Obama expanded his delegate edge by a net of nine in the two states. Obama now has 1,876 total delegates to Clinton’s 1,729, still short of the 2,025 needed to clinch the nomination.

Even before polls were closed Tuesday, Clinton surrogates were sounding a familiar refrain that the primary results in Florida and Michigan should be counted. Clinton won both primaries although none of the candidates campaigned in Florida and Obama’s name wasn’t on the ballot in Michigan. Both states have scheduled re-votes in August, even though the party has not said those votes will count and the Democratic National Convention in Denver is set for that month. The national Democratic Party declared the votes in the states would not be counted after state officials moved the primaries to earlier dates than the party had approved.

“For too long, we’ve let places like West Virginia and Kentucky slip out of the Democratic column … I intend to win them in November in the general election,” she said to Washington Post on Tuesday.

With the campaign having dragged on for months, much has been made about divisions in the Democratic Party. Both candidates are looking ahead to contests next week in West Virginia. It will be followed by the primaries in Kentucky and Oregon on May 20, Puerto Rico on June 1 and finally in Montana and South Dakota on June 3.

Clinton is favored in West Virginia, Kentucky and Puerto Rico while Obama is likely to win in Oregon, Montana and South Dakota.