Barack Obama wins Wyoming caucuses
New York, March 9 2008. Barack Obama (photo Daniella Zalcman) regained his electoral footing on Saturday. The Illinois senator won the Wyoming caucuses by a wide margin. With 100% of the precincts reporting, the Democratic front-runner had 61% of the vote to Hillary Clinton’s 38 percent. Obama won seven delegates and Clinton won five. In the overall race for the nomination, Obama leads 1,578-1,468, according to AP. 2,025 delegates are needed to win the Democratic nomination. In a hard-fought battle for the Democratic nomination in which she regained some momentum by winning Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island on March 4, the former first lady hoped for an upset in Wyoming. She campaigned there last Friday and sent her husband Bill Clinton and her daughter Chelsea to stump on her behalf. Barack Obama was in the sparsely populated and overwhelmingly Republican State on Friday as well. Wyoming voters gave Obama what he was looking for before the Mississippi on Tuesday: a victory and the chance to stop Hillary Clinton’s burgeoning momentum. The Illinois scored his 13th win in a caucus to Clinton’s 3. David Plouffe, Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, said Saturday that the Wyoming victory was “evidence that Senator Obama is going to be able to put more states in play” and underscore the Illinois senator’s strength in the West. So far, Barack Obama won Nebraska, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, North Dakota and Washington State. The Clinton camp tried to downplay the loss in a statement saying the campaign was “thrilled with this near split in delegates”. Maggie Williams, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, portrayed the former first lady as the underdog in Wyoming. “Although the Obama campaign predicted victory in Wyoming weeks ago, we worked hard to present Senator Clinton’s vision to the caucus-goers and we thank them for turning out today.” On Saturday Bill Clinton was in Mississippi campaigning for his wife. He trumpeted Sen. Hillary Clinton’s plan to help South Mississippi with insurance and permanent housing in its long recovery from Hurricane Katrina. The former president stayed on message as he criticized Barack Obama. “You want a president who is a change maker in other people’s lives,” Bill Clinton said in Pass Christian. “There’s a difference between saying ‘I embody change’ and saying ‘I have spent my life trying to make change for other people,’ and Hillary is the best I ever saw at seeing a problem and trying to figure out what to do to make it better.” While getting ready to compete in Mississippi on March 11, Hillary Clinton is and Barack Obama are looking ahead to delegate-rich Pennsylvania on April 22. Both campaigns are also trying to find a solution to seat Michigan and Florida delegates at the Democratic convention in Denver in August. Both states have been stripped of their delegates for holding their primaries earlier than allowed. Clinton won both state but Barack Obama was not even on the ballot in Michigan. New York / Jean-Cosme Delaloye CommentsYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
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