Results will be trickling in all evening, though it may be tomorrow before we know how many delegates each candidate won.
For those who say the popular vote and the state-by-state results are meaningless because “it’s all about delegates,” I disagree. Clinton and Obama may finish within 50 delegates of each other, but psychologically, and in terms of media coverage, it will make a big difference who won the popular vote in California.
Also, it will make a big difference in the media coverage if one candidate wins at least two-thirds of the states voting today, as opposed to each candidate winning about half of the 22 states.
UPDATE: Wow, an exciting night with both candidates able to claim victory.
Obama will win 13 or 14 of the 22 states, which is impressive. True, many of them have low numbers of Democrats participating (AK, ID, ND), but it does impress me that Democrats in the deep-red states seem to want Obama at the top of the ticket. Obama won by a surprisingly large margin in DE and won narrowly in CT and MO. He won IL by a much larger margin than Clinton won NY.
He can credibly claim that he can compete in all parts of the country.
On the other hand, Hillary looks set to crush Obama in California, despite all of the endorsements and glowing media coverage for Obama there lately. Hillary also beat Obama convincingly in MA, where the governor and both senators were for Obama, and in NJ, where some pollsters had Obama leading toward the end. She won in red states like TN and OK, not to mention AR.
It will be a while before we figure out the delegate count. If it’s a tie or close to that, Obama will be very happy, because the states set to vote for the rest of this month heavily favor him. He could have a delegate lead going into March 4, when TX and OH vote.
But given how early the networks called California and Arizona, Clinton seems to have held on to her big edge among Latinos. That doesn’t bode well for Obama’s prospects of winning TX.
I am pleased with the outcome. I didn’t want the nomination to be wrapped up tonight. We benefit from more time with our candidates in the limelight.
I hope the media will now start asking Obama more tough questions, because I’d be a lot more comfortable with him as the nominee if he gets plenty of media scrutiny in the next month or two.
More debates will help our candidates sharpen their messages as well.
All in all, a good night to be a Democrat.
3 Comments
Obama doing quite well!
Obama is doing much better than I thought he would. It’s going to be interesting too to see how the tornado situation in TN is going to affect the race there. I believe some polling sites around Memphis were suspended?
american007 Tue 5 Feb 9:34 PM
he looks set to win at least half the states
If that happens, but Clinton sweeps most of the delegate-rich states (NY, CA, MA, NJ) get ready for the Obama supporters to start talking up how he won so many states across the country.
Like I said, this was never just about delegates.
I don’t know about polling places being closed, but I think Clinton was always poised to take TN.
desmoinesdem Tue 5 Feb 9:53 PM
Same here.
He has done pretty well considering how much time he had to campaign in all of today’s states. With the time he will have to make his name, I like his odds in Ohio and Texas. By far, today was a success for him. It is good that he won the majority of today’s states. That’s important. I imagine he will do pretty well in the delegate count, as well. I believe he won Illinois delegates by a larger margin than Hillary won New York. We’ll see though when the results are final. I think his total percentage margin of victory (add up the percentage margin of victory for all states) is higher absolutely. Obama just pulled ahead in MO, so that’s good too.
I don’t want to discount NY, MA, and NJ, but it should be noted that Obama made large strides in just a week of campaigning in those Hillary strongholds. Let’s not forget that this was Hillary’s election to lose. I would say Obama has done an excellent job of winning it, so far.
Hillary wants one debate a week for the next four weeks. Seems a bit excessive, even a bit of a waste of time, but ok.
drinksgreentea Tue 5 Feb 11:14 PM