As the race for the presidency continues, the spotlight has turned on Obama for many reasons. First, Clinton claimed Obama plagiarized in a speech this week in Wisconsin. Her campaign states that Obama used lines and expressed ideas from a speech that Governor Patrick gave. Obama told the American people that he should have given credit to Patrick; however, at the same time he asserted that Patrick and he share many of the same beliefs on the issues and their linguistic methods to communicate them. Governor Patrick, a supporter and friend of Obama responded, “Senator Obama and I are longtime friends and allies. We often share ideas about politics, policy, and language. The argument in question, on the value of words in the public square, is one about which he and I have spoken frequently before. Given the recent attacks from Senator Clinton, I applaud him responding in just the way he did."
Moreover, this week Obama visited Edwards, who has yet endorsed a candidate, in North Carolina. Perhaps Obama was worried about the ensuing primaries. However, this week Obama continued his upward momentum to the nomination. With a landslide win in Hawaii, and a win in Wisconsin, Obama has won ten consecutive primaries. However, Hillary Clinton is not giving up the fight. The two are eagerly campaigning for the delegate rich states of Texas and Ohio.
For example, before this past week, a poll stated that Obama would lead in the Texas Democratic primary (48% to 42%). However, another poll had the individuals almost tied, due to a margin of error. Therefore, this week Obama visited Texas and continued campaigning. In Houston, Obama spoke to a crowd of 19,000 individuals, asking the important state to help him receive the Democratic nomination. In addition, Obama may win Texas because of the characteristics of his voters and the complicated Texas primary. In the Texas primary, the state’s 126 delegates are distributing to its 31 state districts through a formula that depends on the number of Democratic voters in the elections of 2004 and 2006. Each of the districts will receive between two and eight delegates. The reason why Obama may be favored to win this state is because the formula for this primary has given more delegates to urban areas. These urban areas consist of many black voters and young individuals who are more likely to support Obama. Clinton, who personally has campaigned for the Hispanic vote in Texas, while leaving the other areas so far to Bill, is hurt because the poorer Hispanic areas that she will likely win have received fewer delegates. In Ohio, another important state (because of a large number of delegates) for Obama and Clinton, Obama began his campaign in this state, using a “populist economic message” to appeal to the state’s working class individuals. As we anxiously wait for Ohio and Texas, a recent national Democratic poll that has shown Obama has passed Clinton in voter’s support, may shine light on future successes and the nomination.
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2 comments:
Looking at much of the press concerning Obama right now, most of it seems to be focusing on the likelihood he will get the party nomination. I think it is important that the press and the voters be skeptical that Obama is a shoe in for the nomination. We seem to forget very quickly that Clinton was in a similar position only a few weeks ago. Getting past that, however, polls show that many democrats thing Obama would be the better candidate to defeat McCain in the general election. Interestingly, another poll shows McCain and Obama are viewed as the two most "unifying" candidates for their respective parties. It seems to me that although people have been sick of the increasing bickering in Washington for awhile, the voters may actually make it a campaign issue this time around instead of accepting business as usual.
i agree with sophie that the nomination isnt entirley over yet, the Clintons always have a strong campaign and they were winning a few weeks ago by almost a hundred delegates while obama right now is winning by about 70. the only thing is that to make up for all oftheir losses the clintons are going to have to win both texas and ohio, and not just win them, but win big. to have any chance to catch up at all they are going to have to completely shut obama down and with the entrance polls the way they are and obamas past with entrance polls, this does not seem to likely
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