Election Referee: U.S. Politics, Analysis and Opinion » Blog Archive

Clinton wins Kentucky, Obama wins Oregon

Posted by John Publius Jr. on May 21st, 2008 — in Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Blog

Today is one of those days when political coverage is more like sports news.

************* WRAP ******************************

Yesterday’s double-header between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama resulted in a predictable split decision.

Clinton defeated Obama in Kentucky, outscoring Obama 37 to 14 in pledged delegates. In Oregon, Obama won over Clinton, and we’re still waiting for the final score.
May 23rd UPDATE: Oregon resulted in 31 delegates for Obama and 21 for Clinton.

Media analysts repeated the usual exit poll demographic discussion. Some white voters in Kentucky apparently don’t like Obama. Hillary is in it until the final primaries on June 3rd. Most speculate that Obama will be the official Democratic Party nominee by mid-June at the latest.

Obama needs only 57 more delegates to clinch the nomination and finally advance to the political World Series against John McCain. To defeat McCain, Obama needs to expand his roster to bring in as many Clinton voters as possible.

************* BOX SCORES ***********************

GAME 1 - KENTUCKY
Delegates: Clinton: 37 | Obama: 14
% of vote: Clinton: 65% | Obama: 30%
vote totals: Clinton: 459,124 | Obama: 209,778
keys to the game: white working class voters, lower-middle income, more rural

GAME 2 - OREGON
Delegates: Clinton: 21 | Obama: 31
% of vote: Clinton: 41% | Obama: 59%
vote totals: Clinton: 252,270 | Obama: 360,728
keys to the game: progressive white voters, middle income, more urban

************* SCHEDULE ************************

3 primaries contests remain (the number of delegates at stake is in parentheses):

June 1st: Puerto Rico (55)
June 3rd: Montana (16) and South Dakota (15)

Also, we are waiting for approximately 209 super delegates to announce their intentions.

Hang in there, it’s almost over, really!

************* STANDINGS ************************

*Delegate Count: Obama needs 57 more delegates to clinch the nomination.

Obama: 1969 (total), 1660 (pledged), 309 (super delegates)

Clinton: 1779 (total), 1500 (pledged), 279 (super delegates)

Edwards: 7 (total), 7 (pledged), 0 (super delegates)

* Updated May 23, 2008, according to CNN.
2,026 delegates required to win the nomination.

Note on delegate counts: each news agency has its own set of numbers. This is primarily due to the complex rules involved in awarding delegates to the candidates. I’ve been using CNN as a baseline, but this is somewhat arbitrary and not an endorsement of CNN. Their website updates the count frequently and I find it easy to use and informative. See MSNBC and FoxNews for alternative delegate counts.

Sphere: Related Content

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 3:23 pm and is filed under Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.