Obama takes North Carolina; Clinton squeaks by in Indiana
by Cash Michaels - Special to the NNPA from The Carolinian
RALEIGH (NNPA) — Despite narrowing pre-primary polls, withering negative national headlines, and a relentless assault by his fierce Democratic opponent, North Carolina put Sen. Barack Obama’s historic bid for the presidency firmly back in the driver’s seat May 6 with a commanding 56-42 primary victory over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
”There were those who were saying that North Carolina could be a ‘game-changer’. But today, what North Carolina decided is that the only game that needs changing is the one in Washington, D.C.,” the African American candidate, with his beaming wife, Michelle, looking on, said to over 3,000 cheering supporters that evening in North Carolina State University’s Reynolds Coliseum. “I want to thank the people of North Carolina for giving us a victory in a big state,” Obama continued, “a swing state, and a state where we will compete to win if I am the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.”
Winning the lion’s share of North Carolina’s 115 pledged delegates in addition to the popular vote made losing the Indiana primary 51-49 percent in a squeaker to Clinton later that evening easier for the Illinois Democrat to swallow. Obama conceded that Clinton victory early, satisfied that the night was his.
Celebration at N.C. State in Raleigh
Obama’s impressive North Carolina triumph wounded Sen. Clinton’s claim that she is the surging, most viable Democratic presidential candidate to face presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain in November, despite Obama’s front-runner status and insurmountable pledged delegate lead.
Uncommitted superdelegates, who must make the ultimate decision about whom to declare the Democratic Party nominee before the party convention in August, are hard-pressed now to justify turning their backs on Obama, as Clinton and her supporters have insisted they should. Clinton seemed to be admitting as much during what some suggested was a conciliatory victory speech in Indiana.
Though she had hoped for a decisive victory in the Hoosier State, coupled with either a surprise win in North Carolina — where both her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and state Gov. Mike Easley had campaigned exhaustively — or at least a convincing narrowing of Obama’s 20-point lead there, she was stunningly denied both. While vowing to “work my heart out” running in West Virginia and Kentucky — two of the upcoming six remaining primaries, all of which will conclude June 3 — Clinton’s tone was no longer defiant.
“I want to commend Senator Obama and his supporters on their win in North Carolina,” the New York senator told supporters, as her subdued husband and her daughter, Chelsea, looked on. “We are, in many ways, on the same journey. It’s a journey begun long before we were born. It is a journey by men and women who have been on a mission to perfect our union, who marched and protested, who risked everything they had to build an America that embraces us all.”
As she did with the N.C. Black press a week earlier, Sen. Clinton vowed to work as hard as she could to elect the Democratic nominee in the fall. (See related article above.)
“I know that people are watching this race and they’re wondering. I win, he wins, I win, he wins. It’s so close. And I think that says a lot about how excited and passionate our supporters are and how intent so many Americans are to really taking their country back,” Clinton said.
“But I can assure you, as I have said on many occasions, that no matter what happens, I will work for the nominee of the Democratic Party, because we must win in November.”
While his margin of victory in North Carolina was impressive, the Obama win still betrayed signs of weaknesses.
With the re-emergence of the racial controversy involving his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, plaguing his campaign and threatening to undermine his ability to win a significant percentage of White working-class voters, Obama struggled with that demographic in North Carolina, garnering 36 percent to Clinton’s 59 percent, according to exit polls. The same held true in Indiana, where Sen. Clinton laid claim to that support base.
However, as with Obama’s other primary victories in states with a significant African American population, especially in the South, the Democratic front-runner dominated the senator from New York in that demographic, 91 percent to 6 percent. He also did well with young people, new voters, and educated, progressive Whites.
Thanks to Obama, Democratic voter registration in North Carolina jumped to over 100,000 since January, and early voting figures logged in at almost 500,000. Election officials in that state estimate that over 2 million voters went to the polls May 6, making it one for the history books.
But Obama faces another looming problem — Hillary Clinton voters who vow not to vote for him in November if he is indeed the nominee. Exit polls show that while 45 percent of Clinton voters would support Obama, 38 percent indicated they would vote for Republican John McCain. Pundits are saying that Clinton, who is not expected to be chosen as Obama’s vice presidential running mate, will have to work hard to pull her White working class and White female coalition together with Obama’s supporters to win the White House for him.
But she may not be ready to make that deal just yet.
The Obama victory comes amid yet another attempt by the Clinton campaign to redefine the terms of the game. On May 6, the Clinton campaign suggested that the 2,025 pledged delegate goal for nomination set by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) should actually be 2,208. Clinton’s campaign strategists argue that the pledged delegates She won in the certified Florida and Michigan primaries should count, even though both states’ delegates were disallowed by the DNC because they changed their primary dates without authorization.
While Sen. Obama didn’t campaign in either state, as the DNC had mandated, and actually removed his name from the Michigan ballot, Clinton won both uncontested but disallowed contests. Now the DNC’s Rules Committee must determine a way to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates at the Democratic Convention in Denver in August, and either split the delegates between Clinton and Obama or come up with another formula for pledged delegate distribution that is acceptable to everyone.
DNC Chairman Howard Dean said the 2,025 delegate goal is still in force, even though neither Obama nor Clinton can reach the magic number without the approximately 300 undeclared superdelegates weighing in. Many of them are expected to do just that in coming days, bringing Sen. Clinton’s campaign for the presidency to a halt.
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