Hillary Wins WV by 2 to 1 Margin
May 13th, 2008 at 10:09pm Matt Margolis
The media is calling it a symbolic victory. What do you think? Looks like Camp Hillary sees things differently.
Clinton’s aides contended that her strength with blue-collar voters—already demonstrated in primaries in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana—makes her the more electable candidate in the fall.
“After tonight, we will have one more proof point, if you will, that Hillary Clinton is the strongest candidate Democrats can nominate,” said Ann Lewis, an aide to the former first lady. “We’re going to go back starting tomorrow and talk to those superdelegates who are still uncommitted and say, ‘You know what? She is the candidate who expands the electoral map.’ You look at West Virginia, you look at Kentucky, you look at Arkansas, you look at Tennessee. You look at what’s at stake and that’s a very powerful argument.”
Clinton arranged a meeting with superdelegates for Wednesday.
And so it goes.
UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: In my view, Democrats are very scared. All over TV and radio and even here on the blog, the endlessly repeated talking point is that if we GOPers want to win, we have to stop talking about Obama’s questionable past and associations…meaning that the Democrats have done polling and focus groups and found out that Obama’s past and associations are radioactive when brought up against McCain. Democrats have to get Obama’s past off the table - one might think this would turn them towards Hillary, but she’s got her own radioactive past and failure to nominate Obama would probably mean a collapse in the number of black voters in November, with incalcuable consequences down ballot for the Democrats.
UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: From Patrick Ruffini via NRO’s The Corner:
Wow. Obama only wins 53% of WV DEM PRIMARY VOTERS in a matchup with McCain
This means that Obama can’t win West Virginia…and likely means that he won’t be able to win a single Southern State, all else being equal and nothing massive changes between now and November (which is a loooong way off). Bad news for Obama - and for the Dems, who may have picked a loser.
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Democrats
9 Comments
1. js | May 13th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
the real truth is that all that behind them, superdelegates and folks who really had no clue about hussein obama….and wright…and all the other stuff going on…you can not truely say obama can really hold on to the ground he got while he was shuckin and jivin….eh?
2. thrower | May 13th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Serious question. What is up with all of the Republicans voting for someone other than McCain in primaries and what are the implications for the general election?
3. js | May 13th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
for sure huh…one would think that they might have jumped ship…or on the other hand….that there is a conspiracy to keep the liberals in the DNC fighting as long and as far as they can….sure beats the good ole boys club, eh?
4. Mark Noonan | May 13th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
thrower,
It indicates that McCain still has a ways to go before he’s locked down the GOP base…of course, so does Obama.
The plain fact of the matter is that the Democrats have all the ingredients for a big year for themselves…and yet there’s no indicator that Obama will be able to capitalise on it.
5. Jake | May 14th, 2008 at 12:44 am
Deleted - off topic.
6. thrower | May 14th, 2008 at 2:48 am
It seems to me he has been tacking hard to the right on some issues to attract conservative voters (judges and the Iraq war), and playing the middle on others (global warming). Personally I think he needs to play the middle and count on conservatives to view him as an acceptable lesser evil if he is to win. The lukewarm Republican support in primaries suggests to me that it isn’t working.
7. Freedom1 | May 14th, 2008 at 3:23 am
West Virginia results:
Hillary Clinton 237,970 (72.27%)
Barack Obama 91,322 (27.73%)
Wow, Barack got blasted!
Thrower, what’s the point of Republicans voting for McCain in the primaries? He’s alreadly got the Republican nomination locked up. This leaves Republicans free to participate in OperationChaos which serves the Republican cause far better than voting for McCain who has already won.
“The lukewarm Republican support in primaries suggests to me that it isn’t working.” - Thrower
Simple explanation. The lukewarm Republican support stems from McCain acting more like a Democrat than a Republican. His support for the Global Warming hoax is really irritating. His refusal to support drilling for oil in ANWR is damaging to America’s national security and economy; and his renewed support for amnesty (aka “comprehensive immigration reform”) furthers infuriates Republicans, especially conservatives.
I’ll vote for McCain because he’s the best of the 3 candidates running in 2008. It’s that simple.
8. hermie | May 14th, 2008 at 7:32 am
Now Matt…One state with a population of bitter, racist, guntottin’ bible-thumpers doesn’t mean anything significant to the Dems.
9. David B. Schmidt | May 14th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
You should as Obama would lose big time to McCain in the Electoral college where Clinton is currently winning against McCain. If the Dems go to the convention with in-fighting–expect close to 35% of the hard core Dems to sit it out and hand McCain an easy pass either way.
http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Obama/Maps/May14.html
http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Clinton/Maps/May14.html
Then again–the Democratic party doesn’t even trust it’s voters to make a choice–guess you all are to ignorant in their eyes.