USA: Democrat Hillary Clinton cruises to the expected easy victory over Barack Obama in West Virginia

Record ID: 347809

  • Title: USA: Democrat Hillary Clinton cruises to the expected easy victory over Barack Obama in West Virginia
  • Date: 14th May 2008
  • Summary: (W1) CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES (MARCH 13, 2008) (REUTERS) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE HILLARY CLINTON WALKING ON TO STAGE VARIOUS OF AUDIENCE CHEERING AND WAVING SIGNS CLOSE UP OF CLINTON TALKING CLINTON SUPPORTERS CHEERING
  • Embargoed: 29th May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAGE7S3R615PDYBDBPD60FIGKC
  • Story Text: Democrat Hillary Clinton cruises to the expected easy victory over Barack Obama in West Virginia.
    Hillary Clinton scored a big victory over front-runner Barack Obama in West Virginia on Tuesday (May 13), although it could be too little and too late to stop his march to the Democratic presidential nomination.
    Clinton hoped the landslide win in a state dominated by the white working-class voters who have been her biggest supporters would turn around her campaign and bolster her case that she is the Democrat with the best chance to beat Republican John McCain in November's election.
    Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, retains a nearly insurmountable advantage in delegates who will select the nominee at the party convention in August. West Virginia had only 28 delegates at stake.
    Clinton vowed to keep fighting until the Democratic votingon June 3 despite her dwindling prospects and a mounting campaign debt.

    "I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard," Clinton told a victory celebration in Charleston, West Virginia.

    "This race isn't over yet. Neither of us has the total delegates it takes to win," the New York senator and former first lady said.
    Clinton, whose campaign is at least $20 million in debt, appealed for money to keep her White House bid alive.
    With over half of the votes counted in West Virginia, Clinton led Obama by more than 35 percentage points.
    Clinton supporters remained positive with the victory.

    "The momentum she's going to have from West Virginia, hopefully that will boost her over to Kentucky and the rest of the remaining states. I mean, there's at least seven million votes up for grabs and if she grabs the majority of those, you've got a different ball game," said one West Virginian.
    Obama, who made only one brief campaign stop in West Virginia before the contest, visited the general election battleground of Missouri on Tuesday.
    He already was looking ahead to a November match-up with McCain.

    "Bush-Cheney ticket won't be up for re-election, but the Bush-Cheney policies will, because John McCain has decided that he is running for George Bush's third term in office," Obama said in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. "That's what his campaign has been about - offer the American people four more years of the same approach that has failed the American people over the last eight years."
    Obama did not appear in public after the voting ended in West Virginia, but a campaign spokeswoman said he left Clinton a congratulatory message on her mobile phone. He is scheduled to make stops in the general-election battleground states of Michigan on Wednesday and in Florida next week.
    A delegate count by MSNBC gives Obama 1,880 delegates to Clinton's 1,718 with six more delegates to be awarded in West Virginia. That leaves him 145 short of the 2,025 needed to clinch the nomination.
    Neither candidate can win without help from super-delegates -- nearly 800 party officials who are free to back any candidate. Obama has been gaining ground among super-delegates for weeks and picked up four more on Tuesday.
    He now has a narrow lead over Clinton among super-delegates with fewer than 250 still to be named or uncommitted.
    Exit polls showed Obama picked up more than a quarter of the white vote in West Virginia, which has a small black population. Two of every 10 white voters said race was a factor in their vote, and only a third of those said they would support Obama against McCain.
    About half of West Virginia voters said they believed the Illinois senator shared the views of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his controversial former pastor.
    Five more contests remain in the Democratic nominating battle, with a combined 189 delegates at stake. Oregon and Kentucky vote on May 20, Puerto Rico votes on June 1 and Montana and South Dakota vote on June 3.
    Clinton is favoured again next week in Kentucky and Obama is favoured in Oregon.

    "Like she says: it's not over until the lady in the pantsuit says it's over," remarked Hillary Lambert, a Clinton supporter.
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