A blog for The Chronicle to cover the 2008 presidential election, of which Hofstra University plays a unique part as host of one of the presidential debates. Students will cover the election in real time.

May 20, 2008

Obama nets wins in Oregon and pledged delegate count

By Kimberly Chin
Assistant News Editor

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) had coasted two wins for the night: Oregon's primary, news sources projected, and a majority of the pledged delegates of the nomination. Obama had 51 delegates up for grabs from Kentucky, but Clinton won the state with a more than 30 point lead.

Before Tuesday, Obama needed only 17 delegates to gain the majority, according to The Associated Press.

David Axelrod, Obama's lead campaign strategist, called Obama's pledged delegate majority gain an "important milestone" in the campaign and in the path leading to the Democratic nomination.

The polls in Oregon closed at 11 p.m. EST, and it was projected that Obama won the Beaver state by a slim margin. At 65 percent of precincts reporting, the trend in the polls had kept a steady distance from about 58 percent for Obama and 41 percent for Clinton.

Although Obama leads Clinton in pledged and superdelegates, states won and the popular vote, he did not dismiss her during a speech on Tuesday.

“No matter how this primary ends," Obama said, "Senator Clinton has shattered myths and broken barriers and changed the America in which my daughters and your daughters will come of age.”

Clinton's chances for winning the nomination are slim and it would take a share of about 800 superdelegates to get the edge needed to beat Obama, according to CNN.

Also the claim by her campaign that she has the most popular votes can fall out, if the Democratic National Committee chooses not to count Florida and Michigan, two states who went against the rules of the committee and lost their delegates as a result. Clinton's lead in the popular vote count would also exclude caucus votes, which Obama has fared well in.

“From the very beginning, you knew that this journey wasn’t about me or any of the other candidates in this race,” Obama told supporters on Tuesday when he returned to Iowa, the first in the nation caucus state that he had won of his presidential nomination campaign.

“It’s about whether this country — at this defining moment — will continue down the same road that has failed us for so long or whether we will seize this opportunity to take a different path: to forge a different future for the country we love.”

Clinton wins Kentucky while Obama secures majority


Obama declares pledged delegate majority in his speech to supporters in Des Moines, Iowa.
(Video provided by MSNBC.com)

By Kimberly Chin
Assistant News Editor

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) decisively won the Kentucky primary, with a lopsided lead over her rival Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), although it was not enough to block Obama from picking up a majority of the Democratic Party’s pledged delegates, which could be telling of the eventual nominee.

The Associated Press reported that Obama only needs 17 delegates coming out of Tuesday’s primaries, which he easily carried, despite Clinton’s victory of 65 percent compared to Obama’s 29 percent in the southern state.

"To say that we have the majority of the core of the delegates that are going to be making the decisions at the convention and selecting our nominee, that's a critical milestone," former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle said, who is also an Obama campaign co-chairman.

Although it is highly unlikely that Clinton will be able to capture the delegates, she is betting on winning the popular vote, an aspect of the nomination process that her campaign has claimed to lead.

“This is one of the closest races for a party’s nomination in modern history,” Clinton told her supporters, after many networks called her victory early in the night. “We’re winning the popular vote, and I’m more determined than ever to see that every vote is cast and every ballot is counted.”

Clinton’s victory in the Blue Grass state signifies a continual battle, which for the past few months has led media critics and even members of her own party to ask her to step down for the sake of a unified party come the general election in November. Ignoring the calls, Clinton has been able to pick up three more states in the last week, which includes Kentucky.

She holds most of the crucial "big" Democratic-leaning states needed to win in the Fall.

Obama addressed his supporters in Iowa, one of the crucial early states he had won, as the results came in from Kentucky.

“Senator Clinton has run a magnificent race, and she is still working hard, as am I, for all of these last primary contests,” Obama said, acknowledging that he has not “presumptuously” claimed the nomination yet, as Clinton staffers contend, and is expecting to continue the struggle with Clinton until the end of the race in June.

"Right now, more people have voted for me than have voted for my opponent," Clinton said. "More people have voted for me than for anybody ever running for president before. So we have a very close contest."

Primary polls are still open in Oregon, which has a unique mail-in primary. The results will come in later in this evening.

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