Posted on 03/05/2008 3:54:38 AM PST by Brilliant
Barack Obama suffered a setback Tuesday in his efforts to drive rival Hillary Rodham Clinton out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, but claimed the delegate math still is on his side.
"We know this: No matter what happens tonight we have nearly the same delegate lead as we did this morning and we are on our way to winning this nomination," Obama told supporters after Clinton broke the Illinois senator's winning streak.
Obama immediately made plans to press ahead, with visits planned in the coming days to Wyoming and Mississippi — the next two contests — and an expected showdown next month in Pennsylvania.
Clinton won primries in Rhode Island, Ohio and Texas. But Obama still leads in the count of delegates who will decide the nomination.
He addressed supporters in front of the San Antonio Municipal Auditorium while the results in Texas — the biggest prize of the night — were up in the air.
Despite the night's split decisions, "We can stand up with confidence and clarity," Obama said.
Going into Tuesday's voting, Obama had won 11 straight victories. He won Vermont on Tuesday.
"In the weeks to come, we will begin a great debate about the future of this country," he said.
Obama's campaign momentum slowed in the week since the presidential debate in Cleveland. He emerged from that confrontation focusing his attention almost solely on Republican contender John McCain, all but ignoring Clinton as if he had already nailed down the Democratic nomination.
But he was thrown off-stride by a Clinton television ad portraying her as the leader who voters want on the phone when a crisis occurs in the middle of the night, "while your children are safe and asleep."
And over the past few days, he was dogged by allegations that he had overstated his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement to win votes in Ohio; and by his past ties to Chicago businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who is on trial on political corruption charges.
Obama was returning to his hometown of Chicago on Wednesday to regroup.
Earlier Tuesday, Obama told reporters he expected a prolonged race, not the hoped for knock-out punch.
Clinton, he said, "is a tenacious and determined candidate. And so we're going to make sure that we work as hard as we can — as long as it takes."
People exercising their right to organize as they wish and choose their own candidates as they wish. Caucuses give more influence to those who wish to be more active in their party. Un-American huh? Please explain yourself.
What about those who rent apartments?
Because they didn't get marching-orders from Limbaugh, Ingraham and the other Svengali's who concocted this asinine strategy. Now you'll get both Clinton... AND OBAMA... come November.
LOL! My thoughts had not gone as far as War of the Roses. Love the thought! And you are spot on.
Please. Negative approval does not get positive votes for anyone. All Hillary has to do to win is keep a few McCain voters home and the MSM will do that for her.
Absolutely right. The Hillary supporters here seem to have erased memory of Clinton 1992, or perhaps they weren't born yet.
I voted for Obama in Virginia long before the doofuses like Rush concocted their stratergy. I and many Hillary haters made Obama possible and we almost had it until the doofus stepped in.
I have had a bad feeling about this possibility since the beginning:
From an AP story this morning:WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton is hinting at the possibility of sharing the Democratic presidential ticket with Barack Obama, but says voters still have to decide the party nominee.
Clinton says: "That may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of ticket. I think the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me."
I'm not looking forward to seeing Obama resurrecting his take over, claiming he has some "experience" under his belt, for 2012, 2016 - or ever.
He needs to be thoroughly exposed and discredited NOW.
She still has almost zero chance of getting the number of delegates to win the nomination. She would have to take an average of over 53% of the remaining delegates...not at all likely.
LLS
LLS
LLS
Everyone that wants to take part in a caucus can. Do you even know what a caucus is?
If I start a political party and decide that members must be land owners, green eyed, and that candidate selection will be accomplished via a public forum, what business is it of your's to attempt to outlaw it?
While waiting for my precinct convention last night, I had one woman tell me her Republican daughter and son-in-law decided to go to the Democrat primary and vote for Hillary to keep her “in” and fighting with Obama, and then the man next to me said he knew a couple guys at his job that were doing the exact same thing!
By inference, Bill will be at Hillary's side in bed at three a.m., and supposedly his judgment would be better than Barak's. One might think Bill would be in someone else's bed, but Jack Nicholson remind us, "there's nothing sexier than a woman you have to salute in the morning."
LLS
I was with you until I remembered you were talking about Hillary.
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little...
The caucus votes are still being counted at the moment. At the current time, with all the popular vote counted, Clinton won 65 delegates and Obama won 61, a net gain of four delegates on Obama.
But of the caucus delegates awarded so far, Obama is leading 10-7 in delegate count. He might well end up with more delegates from Texas than Clinton when the dust settles.
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