Obama & McCain Victorious! So What?
The big news on the Democratic political front is that Barack Obama continues to sweep up wins everywhere he goes. For the first time he has pulled in front of Hillary Clinton in pledged delegates. Probably more important is the fact that he won the Tuesday primaries by making big inroads into groups that were formerly avowed Clinton devotees, most notably white women voters. Obama really seems to be on a roll and normally that would be a good sign for a candidate, but unless Ohio and Texas fall apart for Clinton, the decision for who will be the Democrat’s nominee will be made at the Democratic National Convention.
This year’s convention has several things occurring that could be contentious. First of all, there are the Super Delegates, political bigwigs who can vote for whoever they choose to, no matter how the state they are representing voted. Then there is the issue of all the delegates that were eliminated by the National Party as punishment for holding their primaries earlier than the DNC wanted. Most of those states went for Clinton, which could change the balance of power if they are let back in. (I don’t understand how the DNC can disenfranchise all the voters in those states anyway.)
Things are just as complicated on the Republican side. John McCain won every primary yesterday, though Mike Huckabee gave him a run for his money in Virginia. McCain is now up to 812 delegates of the 1,191 needed to cinch the nomination. Mike Huckabee has 217 but keeps running. This ‘winner take all’ GOP style that helped Huckabee initially is not working for him now. If Romney were to swing his 286 delegates to McCain, that would put McCain almost over the top. If he were to swing them to Huckabee (highly unlikely) that still puts Huckabee way back.
So it looks like the Dems won’t have a decision until the convention and the GOP hasn’t united behind their frontrunner. Radio host Rush Limbaugh even suggested a Joe Lieberman and John McCain ticket! Ain’t politics fun?
Tags: Barack Obama, delegates, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Politics, Presidential primary, Republicans, Rush Limbaugh
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