Former Kerry primary chief: Clinton nomination 'impossible, really'
by Raw Story
Link to ArticleSen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) scored big Tuesday night, taking Texas and Ohio, states her husband said were a "must-win" for her to remain viable in the race for the Democratic nomination.But a close analysis of the delegate counts -- which still favor Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) even after Clinton's Tuesday bump, may put a Clinton victory out of reach. "By some calculations, Clinton would need to win more than 60 percent of the vote in the dozen contests remaining between now and June 7 to catch Obama in pledged delegates -- a steep challenge given that, so far, she has won that much in only one state, her onetime adopted home of Arkansas," the Washington Post's Peter Baker and Anne Kornblut noted Wednesday. "Even in New York, where she is a sitting senator, she won 57 percent of the vote. She won 55 percent in Michigan, where Obama was not even on the ballot." By CBS News' count, Obama remains ahead, 1,512 to 1,423 delegates. By AP's count, Clinton has 1,391 delegates to Obama's 1,477.Jim Jordan, who ran Sen. John Kerry's initial primary race in 2004, told the Post he believes she can't win. "Her durability is impressive if not astonishing, but she is still looking at some pretty cold, hard numbers in the race," Jordan said. "She's running out of time, she's running out of space." He described a Clinton nomination even with wins in Texas and Ohio as "impossible, really." Sen. Kerry has endorsed Sen. Obama in the nomination fight. Another Democratic strategist told the Post: "It's difficult to see how the math works for Senator Clinton," he said. "If you look at most models out there circulating, the one thing that's consistent is that she has to perform pretty strongly in order to have any hope of making up the deficit among elected delegates." Clinton supporters, meanwhile, say Obama's momentum is waning, citing her victories in the two states. "The theory of momentum suggested Obama should roll up equally large margins today, but voters seem to want to keep this race going," said Paul Begala, a former Clinton aide. "I suspect Senator Clinton agrees with them." "No person has ever won the White House without winning the Ohio primary in either party, so I think Ohio is pretty important," Clinton said in an interview with the NBC affiliate in Columbus. "The voters are not ready for this to be over. They want to be sure they are picking the person who would be the strongest nominee against John McCain." These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. If you have accounts on these bookmarking sites, you can post this story to share it with others.
|
