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 Obama
Wins North Carolina, Clinton Squeaks By In Indiana
by The Associated Press
Posted: May 7, 2008 - 2:00 am ET
(Indianapolis, Indiana) Barack Obama swept to a
convincing victory in the North Carolina primary Tuesday night and declared he
was closing in on the Democratic presidential nomination. Hillary Rodham Clinton
eked out a win in Indiana as she struggled to halt her rival's march into
history.
"Tonight we stand less
than 200 delegates away from securing the Democratic
nomination for president of the United States," Obama
told a raucous rally in Raleigh, N.C. - and left no doubt he
intended to claim the prize.
Clinton stepped before her own
supporters not long afterward in Indianapolis. "Thanks to
you, it's full speed on to the White House," she said,
signaling her determination to fight on in a campaign already
waged across more than 16 months and nearly all 50 states.
Returns from 99 percent of
North Carolina precincts showed Obama winning 56 percent of
the vote to 42 percent for Clinton, a triumph that mirrored
his earlier wins in Southern states with large black
populations.
That made Indiana a virtual
must-win Midwestern contest for the former first lady, who had
hoped to counter Obama's persistent delegate advantage with a
strong run through the late primaries.
Returns from 99 percent of the
precincts showed her with 51 percent to 49 percent for her
rival, a margin of little more than 22,000 votes out of more
than 1.2 million cast. The outcome wasn't clear for more than
six hours after the polls closed, the uncertainty stemming
from slow counting in Lake County near Obama's home city of
Chicago.
Obama won at least 94 delegates
and Clinton at least 75 in the two states combined, with 18
still to be awarded.
Voters in both states fell
along racial lines long since established in a marathon race
between the nation's strongest-ever black presidential
candidate and its most formidable female challenger for the
White House.
The economy was the top issue
by far in both states, according to interviews with voters as
they left their polling places.
Two weeks after a decisive
defeat in Pennsylvania, Obama sounded increasingly like he was
looking forward to the fall campaign.
"This primary season may
not be over, but when it is, we will have to remember who we
are as Democrats ... because we all agree that at this
defining moment in history - a moment when we're facing two
wars, an economy in turmoil, a planet in peril - we can't
afford to give John McCain the chance to serve out George
Bush's third term."
Clinton was joined at her rally
by her husband Bill, his face sunburned after hours spent
campaigning in small-town North Carolina, and their daughter,
Chelsea.
She stressed the issue that
came to dominate the final days of the primaries in both
states, her call for a summertime suspension of the federal
gasoline tax. "I think it's time to give Americans a
break this summer," she said.
She added that no matter who
wins the epic race for the nomination, "I will work for
the nominee of this party" in the fall campaign against
the Republicans. To emphasize her determination, Clinton
announced plans to campaign Thursday in West Virginia, South
Dakota and Oregon, three of the remaining primary states.
Obama was gaining more than 90
percent of the black vote in Indiana, while Clinton was
winning an estimated 61 percent of the white vote there.
In North Carolina, Clinton won
60 percent of the white vote, while Obama claimed support from
roughly 90 percent of the blacks who cast ballots.
Obama's delegate haul edged him
closer to his prize - 1840.5 to 1,684 for Clinton in The
Associated Press count, out of 2,025 needed to win the
nomination.
As he told his supporters,
Obama was on pace to finish the night within 200 delegates of
the total needed. There are 217 delegates at stake in the six
primaries yet to come. Another 270 superdelegates remain
uncommitted.
He has long led Clinton among
delegates won in the primaries and caucuses, and has
increasingly narrowed his deficit among superdelegates who
will attend the convention by virtue of their status as party
leaders. The AP tally showed Clinton with 270.5 superdelegates
and Obama with 256.
The impact of a long-running
controversy over Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah
Wright, was difficult to measure.
In North Carolina, six in 10
voters who said Wright's incendiary comments affected their
votes sided with Clinton. A somewhat larger percentage of
voters who said the pastor's remarks did not matter supported
Obama.
The questionnaire used to learn
about voter motivation did not include any questions about the
gasoline tax.
In Indiana, about one in five
voters said they were independents, an additional one in 10
said Republican.
Only Democrats and unaffiliated
voters were permitted to vote in North Carolina.
Voting in Indiana was carried
out under a state law, recently upheld by the Supreme Court,
that requires voters to produce a valid photo ID. About a
dozen nuns in their 80s and 90s at St. Mary's Convent in South
Bend were denied ballots because they lacked the necessary
identification.
Obama leads Clinton in
delegates won in primaries and caucuses. Despite his defeat
two weeks ago, he has steadily whittled away at her advantage
in superdelegates in the past two weeks and trails 269.5 to
255.
Clinton saved her candidacy
with her win in Pennsylvania, and she campaigned aggressively
in Indiana in hopes of denying Obama a victory next door to
his home state of Illinois. Indiana is home to large numbers
of blue-collar workers who have been attracted to the former
first lady, and she sought to use her call for a federal gas
tax holiday to draw them and other economically pinched voters
closer.
Inevitably, the issue quickly
took on larger dimensions.
Obama said it symbolized a
candidacy consisting of "phony ideas, calculated to win
elections instead of actually solving problems."
Clinton retorted, "Instead
of attacking the problem, he's attacking my solutions,"
and ran an ad in the campaign's final hours that said she
"gets it."
The balance of the primary
schedule includes West Virginia, with 28 delegates on May 13;
Oregon with 52 and Kentucky with 51 a week later; Puerto Rico
with 55 delegates on June 1, and Montana with 16 and South
Dakota with 15 on June 3.
Sen. McCain of Arizona, the
Republican nomination already in hand, campaigned in North
Carolina and assailed Obama for his vote against confirmation
of Chief Justice John Roberts.
"Senator Obama in
particular likes to talk up his background as a lecturer on
law, and also as someone who can work across the aisle to get
things done," McCain said. "But ... he went right
along with the partisan crowd, and was among the 22 senators
to vote against this highly qualified nominee."
Clinton also voted against
Roberts, but McCain, as is often the case, focused his remarks
on Obama.
Obama's campaign responded that
the Republican would pick judges who represent a threat to
abortion rights and to McCain's own legislation to limit the
role of money in political campaigns.
©365Gay.com 2008
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