Barack Obama wins again. Hillary Clinton won’t surrender.

Barack Obama (Photo Andy Kropa) won the Wisconsin primary and the Hawaii caucuses on Tuesday February 19 2008.
Hillary Clinton has now lost 10 Democratic contests in a row.
On Wednesday February 20, Teamsters, a major union, said it would endorse Obama.

New York, February 20 2008.. “It’s time to get real”. After 10 defeats in a row against Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton challenged Democratic voters to give her the chance to represent the party in the November presidential election. Despite her string of losses, the former first lady will not surrender and went on the offensive in a speech on Wednesday in New York City. `It’s time we moved from good words to good works, from sound bites to sound solutions.”, she said, claiming her rival has substituted rhetoric for experience.

Hillary Clinton has decided to sharpen the tone of her attacks, ahead of a crucial debate with Barack Obama in Texas tomorrow. She has one last chance to rescue her struggling presidential campaign: by winning the Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4. She has decided to emphasize her experience to try to woo voters in both States. “This is the choice we face: One of us is ready to be commander in chief in a dangerous world,” Mrs. Clinton said on Tuesday February 19 in Ohio. “One of us has faced serious Republican opposition in the past — and one of us is ready to do it again.”

Barack Obama (Photo Andy Kropa) , the freshman senator bidding to be America’s first black president, campaigned in Texas on Wednesday. After his wins in Wisconsin and Hawaii, he increased his delegates lead. According to the latest AP count, he now has 1,336 delegatesout of the 2025 needed to secure the Democratic nomination for the general election. Hillary Clinton has 1251 .

In Wisconsin, Barack Obama cut deeply into Clinton’s political bedrock, splitting the support of white women almost evenly with her. According to exit polls, he also ran well among blue-collar voters. With the increasingly negative campaign now moving on to Ohio, these findings are worrying for the Clinton camp. The former first lady is betting on working class support in Ohio to try to beat Obama there.

According to American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC), the non-farm employment in Ohio has declined by 3.7 percent and lost 209,400 jobs since 2000. “While Ohio employment grew slowly in the service sectors of its economy not subject to foreign competition, these job gains were more than offset by the state’s substantial employment loss in sectors of the economy subject to international competition, such as the manufacturing and information services sectors”, writes an AMTAC spokesman in a statement.

In the last few days, Barack Obama has attacked Hillary Clinton’s support for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA was signed in 1996, when her husband Bill was president. “Bad trade deals like NAFTA hit Ohio harder than most states. Only Barack Obama consistently opposed NAFTA”, claimed a mass mailing in Ohio.

Teamsters, a powerful union representing 1,4 million members, announced on February 20, it would endorse Barack Obama. This is another major victory for the Illinois senator against his rival. Union support will be key in the Democratic primaries in Ohio and in Pennsylvania on April 22, where about 15 percent of the workforce is unionized.

Jean-Cosme Delaloye / New York

Comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.