Posted on 05/19/2008 4:43:11 PM PDT by COUNTrecount
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is entering the Kentucky and Oregon primaries on Tuesday with one of the most pugnacious political messages of her campaign: That she is ahead in the national popular vote when all votes are counted, including from the unsanctioned primaries in Michigan and Florida and that party leaders who have a vote as super-delegates should reflect this level of appeal.
This argument is of a piece with Mrs. Clintons increasingly populist image, as a fighter on behalf of average people, but it is also a debatable claim: Most tallies of the national popular vote put Mr. Obama in the lead, especially when Michigan and Florida are not counted.
Mr. Obama has declared his own lead in the national vote and is solidly ahead in the overall delegate count, and he intends to use the results of the Kentucky and Oregon primaries to declare on Tuesday night that he has secured a majority of the pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses.
While that does not guarantee the nomination, his campaign argues that it is an important moment and crucial for superdelegates to consider as well.
Yet Mr. Obama does not plan to declare outright victory, his advisers say, because he does not want to appear to be pushing Mrs. Clinton out of the race. At this stage, his advisers say, he wants to treat her gracefully as a worthy Democratic fighter, not as a stubborn nemesis.
The arguments over the cold math of the nomination contest will play out against a backdrop of two states that are likely to show once more divisions in the Democratic electorate that have been exposed in this two-person contest: Mr. Obama is expected to win the primary in Oregon, a largely white, affluent state with a fairly liberal Democratic base,
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If the NYT can only find a way to keep Florida and Michigan from voting in November their thesis is sound.
Again, Facts get in the way of NYT wishes.
Yeah ... but consider the constipation factor: Won't be long before ExLax stock is going through the roof!
“Always there must be two [Democrat front runners] ... no more, no less”
Hillery! grasping at straws.
However Oboma has much to learn.
Yet Mr. Obama does not plan to declare outright victory, his advisers say, because he does not want to appear to be pushing Mrs. Clinton out of the race.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/democratic_vote_count.html
Not to mention people who did not show up to vote at all in FL and MI knowing that their votes did not count.
And both Obama and Hillary signed an agreement [on paper] that the votes would not count.
Obama was not even on the Michigan ballot, but Hillary was. Therefore, of course Hillary got more ‘popular votes’ in Michigan than Obama. Obama got ZERO!
The other point is: How do you count the ‘popular vote’ from all of those caucus states. They didn’t report vote counts.
But, I won the popular vote.....
I am popular, and I won the popular vote
Womanbearpig
You use a Conservative estimate based on the turnout reports and extrapolated from the margin of his victory in the States.
How, exactly, can they justify including Michigan in her totals when she was the only one on the ballot and 45% of the people chose “None of the above”. I bet at least 20% of those who did vote for her only did it because they felt an uncommitted vote was pointless.
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