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May 07

Barack Obama 2008 Add comments

Sen. Barack Obama scored a landslide victory in North Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary yesterday, moving him ever closer to locking up an insurmountable lead among pledged delegates, while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton posted a razor-thin win in the hotly contested Indiana primary …

… The twin results solidified the status quo in the Democratic race, one that now gives Obama the clear advantage in the battle for the nomination because of his solid lead in the tally of pledged delegates. Despite her Indiana victory, Clinton emerged even more the underdog in the nomination battle.

The results meant the senator from Illinois would to add both to his pledged-delegate margin and his lead in the popular vote, leaving Clinton with an even more daunting challenge in trying to deny Obama the nomination.

… Obama won North Carolina by 56 percent to 42 percent, and his popular-vote margin there — about 230,000 votes — wiped out the gains Clinton had made with her decisive victory in Pennsylvania two weeks ago. In Indiana, Clinton won by 51 percent to 49 percent.

Obama, declaring that he is now fewer than 200 delegates away from locking up the nomination, used his victory speech in Raleigh to begin to try to heal the divisions in the party that have resulted from the long and difficult campaign and to sound the themes of a general-election race against Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

"This fall, we intend to march forward as one Democratic Party, united by a common vision for this country," he said. "Because we all agree that at this defining moment in history — a moment when we’re facing two wars, an economy in turmoil, a planet in peril, a dream that feels like it’s slipping away for too many Americans — we can’t afford to give John McCain the chance to serve out George Bush’s third term. We need change in America."

From the New York Times:

The results from the two primaries, the largest remaining Democratic ones, assured that Mr. Obama would widen his lead in pledged delegates over Mrs. Clinton, providing him with new ammunition as he seeks to persuade Democratic leaders to coalesce around his campaign. He also increased his lead in the popular vote in winning North Carolina by more than 200,000 votes.

"Don’t ever forget that we have a choice in this country," Mr. Obama said in an address in Raleigh, N.C., that carried the unity themes of a convention speech. "We can choose not to be divided; that we can choose not to be afraid; that we can still choose this moment to finally come together and solve the problems we’ve talked about all those other years in all those other elections."

… Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, an Obama supporter, said the candidate accomplished what he needed to by outperforming expectations in both states.

From the Associated Press:

Sen. Barack Obama won the most delegates in Tuesday’s primaries, moving within 200 delegates of securing the Democratic nomination for president.

Obama won at least 94 delegates in the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, according to an analysis of election returns by The Associated Press. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won at least 75 delegates, with 18 still to be awarded.

Sixteen of the outstanding delegates were from North Carolina and two were from Indiana.

In the overall race for the nomination, Obama led with 1,840.5 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates. Clinton had 1,684.

Obama was 184.5 delegates shy of the 2,025 needed to secure the Democratic nomination.

There are 217 delegates at stake in the final six contests. Also, about 270 superdelegates are yet to be claimed.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Barack Obama’s quest to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination got a lift with a big win in North Carolina and a strong run in Indiana, where he did significantly better than expected against the favored Hillary Clinton.

… Tuesday’s results will influence the ongoing and ultimately decisive "invisible primary" for the support of superdelegates — the governors, members of Congress and party officers who can vote for any candidate at Democrats’ late-August convention. Sen. Obama has cut Sen. Clinton’s early big lead to about 15 superdelegates — he has an estimated 255 to her 270

… He leads in pledged delegates won in the previous 45 primaries and caucuses, and likely will reach a majority of pledged delegates with the Oregon and Kentucky primaries.