The worst possible scenario for Hillary Clinton in North Carolina and Indiana would have been to lose both states yesterday, but exit polls show that her results were nearly that bad despite her Indiana win. Clinton lost North Carolina in a near-landslide (by 15%) and just barely held on to Indiana.
The final results came in very late Tuesday evening showing Hillary with 50.89% of the votes and Obama with 49.11%. The Indiana results call into question the wider value of her blue collar victory in Pennsylvania two weeks ago. It’s almost game over for HRC.
Although Hillary got 37 delegates in Indiana, and Obama only 33, Obama got 61 in North Carolina leaving Hillary with 38. Sen. Obama is only 182 delegates away from reaching the needed 2025 to secure the nomination. Clinton is 346 delegates away. (Those numbers assume the Michigan and Florida delegations aren’t counted, which isn’t yet foreseeable).
Most important for Barack Obama, and his amen chorus in the MSM, he proved that he can heal quickly from the wounds left on his campaign from his now disowned “uncle like” pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Earlier in the week a national poll showed that 56% of voters believed that Obama shared some of the same views as his controversial pastor Rev. Wright, and 81% of all voters said they were following the story somewhat or very closely.
Adversely in North Carolina only 33% said Wright was “very important” to their vote, while 15% said it was “somewhat important.”
In Indiana 30% of voters said the issue of Rev. Wright was “very important” to their vote, while 18% said it was “somewhat important.”
As much as Obama attempted early in this election year not to make race an issue in his campaign, had there not been such a surge of black voters in North Carolina (Fox News exit polls show that Obama won 91% of the black vote) Obama may not have pulled off such a victory last night. Obama has won many of the other southern states due to an influx of support from black voters.
Fox News exit polls report that Clinton “kept a firm grip among whites in both states, but the margins were not enough to overcome Obama’s surge.”
Clinton was said to have won Pennsylvania overwhelming through blue collar voters, a demographic that has been difficult for Obama to reach out to after his comments that working class voters are “bitter” and “cling to guns and religion.” It seems based on exit polls in North Carolina - despite his elitist comments -voting based on ethnicity was more important. Fifty-six percent of voters in North Carolina were with out a college education and 56% of those voters chose Obama.
In Indiana 16% of voters said that race played an important role in their vote. Of those voters 57% said they went for Clinton, while 43% went for Obama.
News stations have been reporting that Hillary may not have even won Indiana were it not for the “Limbaugh effect.” The conservative talk show host urged Republicans to vote for Hillary in Indiana’s primary in order to create balance in the primary contest after suggesting that a liberal influence helped Sen. John McCain immerge as the Republican Nominee.
The Obama campaign sent out an email Tuesday night claiming that Limbaugh should be credited for 7 percentage points of the votes Hillary accumulated in Indiana.
“According to the latest exit polling data, 17% of voters in the Indiana primary today said they would vote for John McCain in a Clinton/McCain match-up. Forty-one percent of that number is constituted by people who voted Clinton in the primary but also indicated they will vote for McCain in the general election. That comes out to just under 7% of the primary electorate the number that may be attributed to a Limbaugh Effect,” said Bill Burton, an Obama campaign spokesman.
“Limbaugh effect” or not, Hillary is in trouble. More reports out this morning claim that Clinton loaned her campaign another $6.4 million over the last month.
In her “victory” speech last night Clinton said “This has always been your campaign, and this is your victory. We can only keep winning if we can keep competing... I hope you will go to Hillary Clinton.com and support our campaign,” alluding that she is not going anywhere.
Unfortunately for Hillary the MSM has already started to kick her to the curb. The Drudge Report headline this morning was a large photo of Barack Obama with the caption “The Nominee.” Tim Russert from MSNBC said last night that “We now know who the Democratic Nominee will be,” saying that the candidate - meaning Hillary - is often the last person to know that its over.
