It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
 | Bad Night For Hillary Clinton Gets Even Worse With Delegate Count |
It’s bad enough for Hillary Clinton that she lost to Barack Obama in South Carolina by a two-to-one margin, measured by the popular vote. Hillary Clinton’s defeat gets even worse, however, if one looks at the estimate of the delegates that were won by the Democratic candidates in South Carolina tonight. That’s the result that matters most, because rank-and-file Democrats don’t directly elect their presidential nominee. Delegates who are elected through the primaries are the ones who have that privilege.
Estimated delegates awarded to Barack Obama tonight: 15. To Hillary Clinton: 5. To John Edwards: 4.
That makes Barack Obama’s victory tonight by a three-to-one margin, a blowout.
Still, let’s not follow the swerving bandwagon that said Barack Obama had the campaign wrapped up after Iowa, and then said that Hillary Clinton was the unbeatable frontrunner after New Hampshire, and now surely will say that after South Carolina, the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton is careening toward destruction.
It’s likely that the Democratic nomination won’t be wrapped up even after the Super Tuesday elections on February 5. Hillary Clinton had a bad night tonight, but we’ve all had bad nights. We wake up in the morning and move on, and that’s what she’ll do.
Pick your candidate according to your ideals, not according to what your television says is inevitable.
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I hate to burst your bubble, but the candidates are not being picked by ideals, they are being picked by race. Unlike voters in other states, SC voters divided on racial lines. SC is 50% black. The blacks voted for Obama. Hillary and Edwards split the white vote. Deja vu Chicago mayoral election that elected Harold Washington out of a field of three-the two whites splitting the bare majority white vote and coming away with nothing.
Ideals: not.
Comment by Iroquois — 1/27/2008 @ 2:00 am
Iroquois, that is just not true.
First of all, there was no single “white vote”. There is no single “black vote” either. There’s a lot diversity within each group that you’re not recognizing.
Secondly, even if you do buy the “white vote” idea, Obama, Clinton and Edwards split it, not just Clinton and Edwards. In fact, Obama got the majority of people who categorized themselves as “non-Black”, aged 18-29, in the CNN exit poll.
In general, Obama got just 12 percent less than Clinton in the supposed “white vote”. That’s not such a big gap, is it?
Yes, Barack Obama’s numbers are high in the exit poll category of “Black”, but that’s mostly because his numbers were high across the board. If you want to assume that there was a “black vote” and just leave it at that, well, Clinton got a nearly proportional amount of that vote as she did with the vote in general. Hillary Clinton got around 26 percent of the vote in general, and got between 23 and 17 percent of your supposed “black vote”, depending on the age group. That’s not much of a difference, really.
As for your Harold Washington comment, I think they are going to be about as well received as Bill Clinton’s condescending Jesse Jackson comments of last night.
Comment by J. Clifford — 1/27/2008 @ 6:27 am
Hillary Clinton and John Edwards did win the racist vote, though. From Politico: “Half of Clinton’s voters said the country was ‘not ready’ for a black president, while a quarter of John Edwards’ and Obama’s voters said the same.”
That’s disgusting. The country is ready. The Constitution has been ready for years. Racists are not ready, but that’s their private problem. The country has been ready, and if you can’t accept that, then may you’re not ready.
If that’s the case, then why don’t you work on getting ready, instead of attacking Barack Obama?
Comment by Frank Liberal — 1/27/2008 @ 7:10 am
Oh, I see.
If someone white votes for a white candidate, they are “racist”.
If someone black votes for a black candidate, they are “ready”.
How nice that you’re able to view the campaign objectively and not just spew the talking points and negative campaign accusations of a particular candidate.
Exit polls are notoriously inaccurate when it comes to race. My information comes from this poll:
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1435
Play the victim if you like, but stating a fact about polling numbers is not an “attack” on your candidate.
I deeply resent your attempt to try to guilt-trip me into jumping on the you-rah-rah bandwagon for ANY candidate.
Comment by Iroquois — 1/27/2008 @ 9:10 am