West Virginia Primary Results - Articles - Zimbio

Clinton’s West Virginia Primary Win: Significant Or Meaningless?

Tue, 14 May 2008 15:05:59 GMT

posted by yours

It had been predicted all week that Senator Hilllary Clinton would win the West Virginia primary by a whopping margin. Some said such a victory, highlighting flaws in front-runner Senator Barack Obama’s coalition, could make Superdelgates think twice while others others said it would be too late. So what has changed?

Media reports generally echoed this article by McClatchy Newspapers:

Hillary Clinton clobbered Barack Obama in West Virginia Tuesday, but her late win in a small state likely did little to slow rival Barack Obama’s march toward the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton won the overwhelmingly white state in a walk — by a landslide margin of 2-1, according to exit polls — and used the results to argue that Americans shouldn’t count her out yet.

So did it mean something or not?

That clearly depends on who you support.

With the exception of professional political analysts who strictly point to the delegate numbers so far and what is need to win nomination, many Clinton’s supporters say the big win is a potential game changer, while Clinton’s foes and Obama supporters insist it doesn’t change the total picture.

A look at weblog opinion gives a good snap-shot of this passionate, polarizing race — a race where each side’s reality is the other side’s denial.

Here’s a cross section of differing blog opinion on Clinton’s win and what it means:

–Matthew Yglesias:

Her campaign is rescued from the dead. As the Clinton campaign sagely points out “no Democrat has won the White House without winning West Virginia since 1916″ and therefore Obama’s primary loss shows that despite his large lead in the polls over John McCain, he can’t possible win the election.

What’s even more interesting is that no Democrat has won the White House without carrying Minnesota since 1912 (it went for Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose party) so given that Obama won Minnesota and Clinton won West Virginia, McCain is guaranteed to win the general election unless the eventual nominee can somehow completely replicate the social and political conditions prevailing in pre-WWI America.

–Andrew Sullivan:

My own sense is that WV voters are conservative and risk-averse and Obama suffered a great deal from unfamiliarity. Race compounded it; and if you listen to Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, you’re likely to believe that Obama is a Muslim, racist, terrorist communist… For what it’s worth, I felt her victory speech was pretty obviously angling for the vice-presidency. Cuomo just put his weight behind the idea. I’m not sure, whatever the objective merits of the case, I could bear listening to her any longer.

–Taylor Marsh:

Support Hillary!

No negotiation. All the way. Vice president? Keep it. Clinton’s in it to win it. You don’t like it? Beat her.

Obama hasn’t closed the deal. Period.

–Daily Kos:

But to give some perspective, Chuck Todd was just on MSNBC saying that there are 189 pledged delegates left after tonight. For Clinton to overtake Obama, she’d have to win 172 of those delegates or 91%. So congratulations on Hillary’s victory tonight, but it doesn’t matter. Barack Obama is the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party.

Remember New Hampshire? Rally, baby, it’s full steam ahead.

–Red State:

Big media outlets already calling it for Hillary. Take your bets here on the point spread. And drink every time an Obama supporter calls the state’s Democrats racists.

–My DD’s Jerome Armstrong:

Obama may not even break 30 percent, despite being practically anointed with the nomination?!?! Look, this is a partisan blog. Nearly everyone will come around to supporting the nominee here, but if Obama doesn’t recognize the serious problem this presents in the world offline, and his supporters as well, I am speechless (which may not be a bad thing considering).

–Pajamas Media’s Vodkapundit aka Stephen Green did his famous “live blogging” (a must read as always) and summarizes it this way:

Here it is: Hillary’s big, big win. The Obama camp will point out that West Virginia doesn’t really matter, because he already has the nomination all but sewn up, that it’s just a “distraction” from bigger contests, and that WV is filled with crackers, anyway. Although the language they’ll use will be a bit more discreet.

The Clinton campaign will say West Virginia matters, precisely because it’s filled with white people just like all the other white people who won’t vote for Obama in the fall. And that’s pretty much exactly the language they’ll use.

Meanwhile, race continues to be the determining factor in the formerly colorblind Democratic party…

–Townhall:

Perhaps Clinton just continues to rock on until June 3rd, then using the dual bargaining power of being both a potentially destructive annoyance to the party throughout the summer and the idea that the party owes her for having energized new voters and for her potential to keep blue-collar types within the ranks.

Does she settle on one of these bargaining chips– either the diligent party servant or the dangerous candidate scorned? I think we all know which might suit her better.

And, at what point is her bargaining power greatest? Does she ever lose her leverage, or are the Clintons so powerful that regardless of her behavior, she’s guaranteed a pay-out or a position at the end of all this? Thoughts, guys? The clock is a-tickin’ on this thing. Just thinking out loud.

–Slublog:

…Hillary Clinton is getting a pretty bad rap from the media following her win in West Virginia. At this time, it looks like she might win by as much as 30 points.

Sure, it may be all but impossible for her to win, but as Geraghty points out, Obama failed once again to attract the demographic he’s going to need to win key states in November. The superdelegates may be slowly moving Obama’s way, but the lack of overwhelming support indicates that many may still have doubts about his ability to win.

–A South Dakota Moderate:

Is this win in West Virginia really that tremendous considering the uphill battle Obama had to overcome based on the makeup of the population there? Well at least it will give us 2 more visits from the Clinton’s even despite their $20 million campaign shortfall and few prospects of getting the nomination.

–Blogs of War:

The real winner here is McCain. The exit polls and Obama’s incredibly poor performance here point to weaknesses that McCain can exploit. McCain can also continue to chill out while Hillary and Obama slug it out a while longer.

–Comments from Left Field:

And then I remember how much worse this could be, and that while all the spin and hysterical reporting and watching the Clinton supporters act as though this changes everything is annoying, it’s also quite necessary.

Yes, the more rabid the Clinton supporters seem, the more contentious the Clinton campaign comes off, the better.

Give me more.

Because as bad as a loss like this may appear, it would be a whole hell of a lot worse if Obama had lost this bad unopposed. Thus, nights like this are little more than an unpleasant necessity, a rough spot that must be endured while we wait for this contest to be officially over.

–Presidential Politics for America:

As predicted by everyone, Hillary Clinton is projected to win West Virginia by a large margin.

Hillary Clinton is currently giving a speech that is simply all of her talking points onto one piece of paper…Nothing new. So, in the spirit of Clinton, I will offer nothing new in this post. Nothing has changed. Refer to today’s post to see where she goes from here.

–Dispatches from Seth Gitell:

Hillary Clinton just trounced Barack Obama in West Virginia. She’s giving a fired up speech from Charleston. And she’s not going anywhere.

I’m struck by the crowd in the background, all white except for an African American dude in a doo-rag. They’ve also got some kind of doofus in a windbreaker holding a bowling pin aloft.

I’ve admired Clinton’s fighting spirit for much of this campaign. On stylistic grounds, it’s almost bordering on self-parody.

–American Girl In Italy:

She won in every category. Clean sweep. Way to go West Virginia!
I would like to just revel in the victory for a day, but I don’t think there is time…..It just demonstrates why so many Hillary supporters are mad as hell, and aren’t going to take it anymore!

–Oliver Willis:

Hey, they found the one black guy in West Virginia to stand behind Clinton. What are the odds?

Cartoon by Larry Wright, The Detroit News

. .

Hillary Clinton expected to win big in West Virginia primary

Mon, 13 May 2008 04:00:27 GMT

posted by gaysocialites

Democrats in West Virginia hit the polls on Tuesday, and Hillary Clinton is expected to win big.

This makes the primary process so confusing! If Barack Obama is the "presumptive nominee" why does Hillary continue to win primaries, and why do most polls show that Clinton is more likely to beat John McCain.

Hillary is expected to win West Virginia by the largest margin in her campaign's favor yet. The latest Suffolk University poll shows Clinton 36 percentage points ahead of Obama.

West Virginia voters are adding fuel to the fire behind the Clinton campaign while Washington insiders think she should drop out.

A football player doesn't quit in the third quarter if he thinks he isn't going to win, does he? If every vote is meant to be heard, then I think it is an insult to voters who haven't gotten to weigh in yet. Why quit if every vote hasn't even been cast?

After Tuesday's primary in West Virgina, the campaign moves to Kentucky.

West Virginia Primary

Mon, 13 May 2008 08:00:00 GMT

posted by DailyDemographic
I did farily well predicting the North Carolina and Indiana primaries just using exit poll and census data, especially if you ignore my delegate calculations. (Doh!) Let's see how dumb my luck was... I worked under the assumption that voting tendencies by race and gender would hold steady. And the table above shows that they did. If anything, Clinton grabbed a larger share of the white vote than expected. This was offset by the fact that the voting rates for whites were much lower than for blacks. Obama is clearly drawing many new minority voters to the polls. West Virginia has an exceptionally large proportion of its white population that never went to college. We can expect these voters to like Clinton over Obama, but lets see if they actually go to the polls now that Clinton's chances of receiving the nomination appear severely dented. Bottom line: Keeping with what so far as worked pretty well, I predict that Clinton will win West Virginia with 58% of the vote. Currently polls suggest an even larger win. Let's see who's right.

West Virginia Primary: Stop Equivocating

Wed, 15 May 2008 19:13:00 GMT

posted by timotjb
That Hillary Clinton blew Barack Obama out of the water in West Virginia Tuesday was not the least bit surprising. That pundits have spend so much time and effort circumnavigating the obvious reason has been.

Everyone knows the reason.

The three interviews with voters from the above clip:

I guess because he's another race. I'm sort of scared of the other race, because we have so much conflict with 'em.

He's a Muslim, and that has a lot to do with it. [Really, all of the Reverend Wright air time and people still think he's a Muslim?]

I don't like the Hussein thing. I've had enough of Hussein.

The cultural make-up of West Virginia isn't a secret, and there's no reason every single pundit on television has to pretend it is. The state is 95% white, and only 15% have a bachelor's degree. Only three-fourths have graduated high school. ["White persons not Hispanic: 94%, US Average: 66%"]

And while we're at it, stop using the term "working-class." What is that phrase a euphemism for, because it certainly isn't meant to be taken literally. Even college grads have to work for a living, so quit suggesting that anyone who's read a book in the last year is an effete intellectual who doesn't work hard. The only thing I can gather from the context of the coverage is that "working-class" is synonymous with "uneducated whites." Enough already. You know one person who is most decidedly not working class? Hillary Clinton.

So, maybe "working class" actually means, "those people working in factories that we remember exist about every four years for a couple months before returning to one of our six houses."

If Hillary had a monolithic white vote--other than in West Virginia--she would have won already. How exactly is Obama supposed to "court White voters," anyway? Reinstate Jim Crow?

Tuesday's primary meant precisely nothing. The writing was on the wall well before the vote. To pretend otherwise is to be dishonest.

Appended 5/15, 1530:

If labor unions fit the bill as working class, then here's some of those backing Obama:

the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters; UNITE HERE; Transport Workers Union; UFCW; SEIU; International Brotherhood of Boilermakers; Teamsters; and Utility Workers [as of February 25th, via Obama's homepage]

A more up-to-date list.

Just today, the Obama campaign announced the backing of superdelegate and Communications Workers of America President, Larry Cohen, and gained the endorsement of the United Steelworkers.

Welcome to our wikizine called "West Virginia Primary Results"

Tue, 30 Apr 2008 18:23:49 GMT

posted by tatiana
Wikizines are interactive magazines that anyone can create or edit - and this one is called "West Virginia Primary Results". Here you can find fresh voices and respond in real time. Some members write articles about recent news and trends related to the wikizine's topic, others recount relevant personal stories or share their favorite pictures and video clips. Got an interesting idea or story to share with other members of this wikizine? Well, then put on your journalist's cap and add your own article!