Senator Hillary Clinton cinched the West Virginia Primary on Tuesday and vowed to fight on. The New York senator received about two thirds of the vote (67%) to Obama’s 26%. Her win was predictable based on the state’s large population of Clinton’s base supporters – rural, small town residents - but the most important part of the primary was Senator Clinton’s victory speech in which Obama supporters were hopeful that she would drop out. Instead she thanked West Virginia for an “overwhelming vote of confidence” and audible boos were heard from the audience at the mention of people who want her to give up. Her speech means the battle for the nomination is still going to continue despite calls for Clinton to drop out and growing criticism she is hurting the Democratic Party.
Senator Obama, the front runner of the Democratic nomination, gave a speech earlier in Missouri but stayed away from an evening speech following the primary results. Clinton is hoping the landslide victory is enough to stop Obama’s momentum but the fight will be tough. Senator Clinton’s pledge to continue campaigning means that the Democratic nominee will not be secured until at least the end of the month. While many have already deemed Obama the nominee, the Democratic Party faces a large split between the two candidates which must be resolved before the general election in November.
MSNBC’s delegate count gives Obama 1,880 delegates to Clinton’s 1,718 with six more delegates to be awarded in West Virginia. Neither candidate have the necessary 2,025 delegates required to clinch the nomination.
Clinton claims she is staying because the race isn’t over yet, calling on the delegates of Michigan and Florida to be seated despite the fact the delegates were taken away for breaking party rules and moving the states’ primaries up. Some people project that Senator Clinton is remaining in the race because she has aspirations of being vice president or wants to go out with her head held high. One Fox News analyst went as far as to say Clinton is trying to bring Obama down against McCain so that she can run in 2012 and gain the presidency next election. Despite predictions and assumptions, Clinton clings on to hope she will somehow gain the nomination through claims she is the only one with a shot at beating McCain in November.
Photo by greg westfall
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Angelo Alberico // May 14, 2008 at 12:28 am
“overwhelming vote of confidence” that’s funny, because her net gain was 9 delegates (16 for her 7 for Obama)
Which bring the grand total of delegates to:
1713 Clinton
1881 Obama (via CNN)
Looks like it was a big win for her! The Democratic party really screwed the pooch this time around with these stupid delegate rules which THEY ALL AGREED ON! They’ve created so much division over basically the same candidate.
People in West Virginia were admitting to not voting for Obama due to his race, probably not a good state for her to win!
2 Jeff Barrick // May 14, 2008 at 11:29 am
I could not agree with you more. The DEMs are really creating a perfect storm and I’m afraid it will do nothing but make John McCain look more and more Presidential. If you won’t vote for the candidate that wins the DEM nomination just because they weren’t your 1st choice you’re an idiot. They will always be better than a REP regardless if they are a women or black. Clinton and Obama, just like Angelo said, are pretty much the same candidate, lets just put a ticket together and win this fucker already.
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