Who has the votes?
On Tuesday, May 6th, North Carolina and Indiana will hold their (respective) primary elections.
As the number of state elections dwindle, the race between Illinois Senator, Barack Obama, and New York Senator, Hillary Clinton, tightens. Senator Obama has maintained a slight but consistent lead over Senator Clinton throughout the campaign. But, Clinton’s wins in pivotal states such as Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania have brought the contest to a virtual tie.
The (pledged, that is, not counting “super delegates”) delegate count, following the Pennsylvania primaries, has Barack Obama with 1,734 pledged delegates while Hillary Clinton has 1,597. The Democratic candidate needs 2,025 to secure the nomination.
Missing from these figures, however, are the votes and delegates from the states of Michigan (128 pledged and 29 super delegates) and Florida (185 pledged and 26 super delegates). Why? because the state party officials violated the rules and held their primaries early. There was no formal campaigning in either state, and, in Michigan, Obama’s name (along with Biden, Richardson and Edwards) was not on the Democratic ballot. As a result, the votes and delegates from both state elections are not part of the “total”. Both Senator Obama and Senator Clinton have agreed to this omission, but it doesn’t stop Senator Clinton from reminding voters, every so often, that she did win the elections in these two highly pivotal and populated states.
Without even trying to comprehend why or how the state officials allowed these events to occur, it is difficult to ignore the role that each of these states will play in the November elections. If one assumes that the voting trends throughout the country would have continued in properly administered primaries in Florida and Michigan, then one can, probably, assume that Senator Clinton would have won the majority of the votes and delegates, legitimately.
In Indiana there are 72 pledged delegates, who will be assigned proportionately. According to the latest Rassmussen Poll for likely Democrat voters, Clinton leads with 46% to Obama’s 41%.
North Carolina will proportionately assign 115 delegates. Currently, Senator Obama leads Senator Clinton by 9 percentage points (49% to 40% with 11% undecided). Earlier in April, Obama had a 23 point lead.
Why does CNN show such great excitement about Hillary and less enthusiasm about Obama.They are so unprofessional in their reporting. Does CNN means cable news network or the Clinton news network?
I absolutely agree with Dave’s comment. The news networks must be funded by the Clinton campaign the way they are reporting. I have been surfing through them all on the eve of the Ind. and N.C. primaries and every one is touting Hillary as coming through with close enough finishes in both to continue carrying on and having a good case for the Superdelegates to go with her. GIVE ME A BREAK!! If the tables were turned you would have written Obama off a few months ago! You KNOW that “Billary” does not stand a snowballs chance in “heck” of catching Obama so why are you going on about her chances of becoming the Dem. candidate?? Do some fair reporting for once. And PLEASE let the Wright garbage die the death it deserves. This is getting SO old! It’s like the news networks are beating a dead horse! Why not report how the Clintons invited him to the White House for marital counselling? Does that not make him THEIR pastor as well? We’ll never hear that on the Clinton News Network! Or about their court case for fraud going on in California. If Obama was on trial for fraud he would have been out of this race long ago, because the networks wouldn’t have let that one go! PLEASE – some fair reporting would be nice. I have given up on CNN, Fox and MSNBC. They are all in bed with the Clintons!