05/14/2008
Hillary Rodham Clinton won working-class West Virginia by a lopsided margin, handing Barack Obama one of his worst defeats of the campaign yet scarcely slowing his march toward the Democratic presidential nomination.
But with an almost insurmountable lead in the delegate tally, Obama may be able to clinch the party's nomination before the end of the primary season on June 3 even if he loses most of the remaining contests in four states and Puerto Rico.
Clinton showed no signs of being ready abandon her bid to become the first female U.S. president. She coupled praise for Obama with a pledge to persevere in a campaign in which she has become the decided underdog.
Obama conceded defeat in advance but was looking ahead to the Oregon primary next week and to the general election campaign against Republican John McCain.
The West Virginia defeat underscored his weakness among white working-class voters, but he was already trying to win them over to his side in key battleground states in the November general election. He was campaigning Wednesday in Michigan, keenly aware of the need to recapture the unifying promise of his earlier primary and caucus wins, which transcended geography, parties and even racial divisions at times. Specifically, he arranged to visit workers at a Chrysler factory in Macomb County and hold a rally in Grand Rapids.
With votes from 98 percent of West Virginia's precincts counted, Clinton was winning 67 percent of the vote, to 26 percent for Obama. Former North Carolina senator John Edwards was picking up the remaining seven percent even though he quit the race earlier this year.
Clinton won 20 of the 28 delegates at stake in West Virginia, to eight for Obama. That left Obama with 1,883.5 delegates to 1,717 for Clinton, according to the latest AP tally. It takes 2,026 to clinch the nomination at the party convention in Denver this summer, a total raised by one to reflect the election of Democrat Travis Childers to Congress in a special election in Mississippi during the evening.
He added a symbolic victory Tuesday, defeating Clinton in Nebraska's nonbinding primary by a 49-47 percent margin. Nebraska already held caucuses three months ago and Obama locked up most of the state's delegates in that contest.
In West Virginia, Clinton's triumph approached the 70 percent of the vote she gained in Arkansas, her best state to date. It came courtesy of an overwhelmingly white electorate comprised of the kinds of voters who have favored her throughout the primaries. Nearly a quarter were 60 or older, and a similar number had no education beyond high school.
Clinton used her victory rally to speak directly to undecided superdelegates, the party leaders and elected officials who can vote however they like at the party's nominating convention. Neither candidate can secure the nomination just by the delegates won in state contests so superdelegate support is essential to settle the race. "Choose who you believe will make the strongest candidate in the fall", she said. "The White House is won in the swing states", she said, "and I am winning the swing states".
Results in West Virginia primary
With 99 percent of precincts reporting:
-Hillary Clinton 235,857 67
-Barack Obama 90,608 26
(Source: MSNBC)
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