Obama inching ever closer to nomination
WASHINGTON (AP) - May 21, 2008 Obama detoured Wednesday from the campaign for the three
remaining primaries - Puerto Rico, Montana, South Dakota - to rally
in a state where its renegade primary was disallowed. Clinton, too,
was in Florida, pressing to narrow her gap with Obama by having
delegates counted from its contest in January.
The Illinois senator was just 65 delegates short of the 2,026
needed to clinch the nomination, after another superdelegate
endorsement Wednesday and a pair of primaries the night before.
Clinton thrashed him in Kentucky; he answered by winning Oregon.
Connecticut Rep. Joe Courtney, whose district voted for Clinton
in the state's Feb. 5 primary won by Obama, padded the Illinois
senator's lead with superdelegates by declaring his support.
Superdelegates are party insiders who are not tied to the outcome
of state contests.
Obama also was set to pick up another big labor endorsement,
from the United Mine Workers of America.
Although Obama won most groups of voters in Oregon, other recent
primaries including Kentucky's have been polarizing, with large
numbers of his supporters and Clinton's digging in behind their
candidate and saying they would not vote for the other one in the
fall campaign against Republican John McCain.
"If that holds true, then it is a problem," said former
Colorado Sen. Gary Hart, who experienced devastating party
divisions as Democrat George McGovern's campaign manager in 1972.
"But I don't think that's going to hold true."
Speaking Wednesday on CNN, he said Obama is right to have turned
recently to unifying the party and "he has already, wisely, I
think, begun the fall campaign."
McCain addressed an enthusiastic crowd in Miami on Tuesday,
Cuba's independence day, and pledged to hold firm against normal
trade relations with Cuba until that country honors basic freedoms.
He criticized Obama for saying he would meet President Raul
Castro, called the Democrat a "tool of organized labor" for
opposing a Latin American trade deal and said his opponent had
advocated lifting the trade embargo before shifting his position to
say he would merely ease it.
The morning talk shows were barren of the usual candidates or
aides trumpeting the previous night's triumph or explaining away a
loss, one sign that the rhetoric of the competition is ratcheting
down on both sides despite the trio of primaries to come.
Indeed, Obama is now abundant in his praise of a Democratic
rival who engaged him fiercely and often bitterly over six months.
In his Iowa rally Tuesday night, the man close to becoming the
first black Democratic presidential candidate paid tribute to
Clinton's historic effort to become the first female president.
"You know, we've had our disagreements during this campaign,
but we all admire her courage, and her commitment, and her
perseverance," he said. "And no matter how this primary ends,
Senator Clinton has shattered myths and broken barriers and changed
the America in which my daughters and your daughters will come of
age, and for that we are grateful to her."
Democratic rule-makers meet at the end of this month to decide
whether to count delegates from Florida and Michigan. Clinton won
both states but Obama had his name kept off the Michigan ballot and
neither candidate campaigned in those states.
With 88 percent of the vote counted in Oregon, Obama was winning
by a 58-42 percent margin. Clinton scored a 35-point win in
Kentucky after trouncing him by 41 points in West Virginia last
week.
Obama won Oregon with the support of men and young people, but
also found plenty of votes from blue-collar workers who have the
staple of Clinton victories in other states, according to surveys
of voters. As a group, only those making less than $30,000 a year
and those over 65 favored Clinton. Women were evenly divided
between Obama and Clinton, but men voted for Obama 2-to-1.
Altogether, Obama scored a solid win in a heavily white state, a
rare achievement in recent races in which blue-collar whites have
powered his rival.
He also secured a majority of the pledged delegates won in
primaries and caucuses across the country - a milestone that could
help him persuade more superdelegates to endorse him.
"Tonight, in the fullness of spring, with the help of those who
stood up from Portland to Louisville, we have returned to Iowa with
a majority of delegates elected by the American people and you have
put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for president of
the United States of America," Obama said.
In Kentucky, Clinton won two-thirds of women and nearly as many
men - altogether, seven in 10 whites, who made up nearly 90 percent
of the electorate, exit polls indicated. Clinton prevailed among
all age, income and education categories, with particularly large
margins among lower-earning and less educated voters.
Obama and Clinton ran about even with independents, who were
about one in 10 voters in Kentucky. He won a bare majority among
those who most valued change as a candidate attribute, but about a
quarter cited experience and Clinton won nearly all of them.
As he closes in on the Democratic prize, Obama has been
concentrating his campaign more and more on McCain rather than on
Clinton.
But Clinton insists she still sees a path to the prize by
winning over superdelegates, whose support will be needed for
either candidate to be clinch the nomination.
Clinton won at least 56 delegates from Kentucky and Oregon and
Obama won at least 43, according to an analysis of election returns
by The Associated Press. All 51 delegates from Kentucky were
awarded but there were still four of 52 to be allocated in Oregon.
Obama has an overall total of 1,961 delegates, including
endorsements from superdelegates. Clinton has 1,779, including
superdelegates, according to the latest tally by the AP.