McCain, Obama Surge Toward Nominations
By Craig Gordon, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
Feb. 20–WASHINGTON — If there was any question that Barack Obama’s Wisconsin win puts him in reach of the Democratic nomination, it took a Republican — John McCain — to put that to rest.
McCain didn’t even bother mentioning the fast-fading Hillary Rodham Clinton last night in what will go down as McCain’s first salvo of the November campaign — aimed squarely at Obama.
“I will fight every moment of every day in this campaign to make sure that Americans are not deceived by an eloquent but empty call for change,” said McCain, who soundly defeated Mike Huckabee to win Wisconsin as well. That’s the same charge Clinton has been leveling at Obama this week with increasing vehemence — but McCain had better hope it works better for him this fall than it has worked for Clinton until now.
Clinton even added a fresh charge this week, that some of those words were not Obama’s own, but lifted from a supporter’s speeches. But it appears that accusation did little to shake Obama’s support, as he was beating Clinton by 58 percent to 41 percent, with 78 percent of precincts reporting.
In terms of pure delegate count, Wisconsin settled nothing on the Democratic side and only served to pad Obama’s small lead in that count.
But in terms of that ever-elusive momentum, it was hard not to see last night’s results as going a long way toward firming up the fall contest as one between the youngest Democratic candidate in the race and the oldest top-tier Republican in McCain, who effectively dispensed with Huckabee once and for all with a double-digit defeat.
Obama comes out of last night on a roll that Clinton will be hard-pressed to stop as the race moves to the big-state battlegrounds of Ohio and Texas on March 4 and Pennsylvania on April 22.
The contests in Ohio and Texas once looked good for Clinton, sturdy redoubts from which to make a do-or-die last stand if need be. Not anymore.
Many of the same blue-collar and economically battered voters she’s counting on in Ohio turned to Obama yesterday in Wisconsin. He even split white women voters with Clinton.
In addition, an issue Clinton had hoped to make her own — the faltering economy — also seemed to provide her little help in making her case that she was better prepared than Obama to lead the nation on Day One. In fact, seven in 10 voters said international trade has resulted in lost jobs in Wisconsin — bad news for Clinton, whose husband pioneered the idea of Democrats as free-traders.
McCain also won the GOP primary in Washington state, while Clinton and Obama were running neck-and-neck in early returns in a Democratic contest there that awarded no delegates. Obama was favored to win Hawaii’s Democratic caucus.
The way ahead could get uglier in the Clinton-Obama fight — already the two raised the temperature of their rhetoric this week, with Clinton running the first negative ad of the campaign. Expect more such attacks from the Clinton camp if it appears to be slipping away.
The brewing fight over superdelegates — party poobahs who get to back whoever they want at the convention — also could get nastier as Obama presses his case that they should go to him, as the leader in the delegate hunt.
But just in case the Democrats still held out hope of turning the race against McCain, 71, into a pure domestic policy fight, the day’s headlines reminded them that world affairs have a way of crowding into presidential contests — with potentially destabilizing elections in a nuclear-armed Pakistan, Kosovo declaring independence and Fidel Castro stepping down in Cuba.
Obama — 46 and not yet finished his first term in the Senate — will have to step up his rhetoric to prove he can go toe-to-toe with McCain on world affairs.
McCain’s victory speech last night could give Clinton one more opening to make her case to Democrats — McCain will tear apart Obama, she can argue, so you need a battle-hardened pro like me to take him on.
The Wisconsin vote
Unofficial results from last night’s Wisconsin primaries as of 11:45 p.m. Percentages are rounded.
DEMOCRATS
Total: 74 delegates
84% of percents reportIng
Barack Obama 58%
Hillary Clinton 41%
REPUBLICANS
Total: 37 delegates
84% of percents reportIng
John McCain 54%
Mike Huckabee 37%
Up next
March 4 primaries in four states are keys to Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination.
State Delegates at stake
March 4
Ohio 161
Rhode Island 21
Texas 228
Vermont 15
TOTAL 425
Latest polling
Clinton Obama Other / undecided
Ohio 52.7% 38.0 9.3
Rhode Island 36.0% 28.0 36.0
Texas 50.2% 42.6 7.2
Vermont 37.0% 19.0 44.0
Ohio and Texas polling data reflect Real Clear Politics polling averages as of Friday. Rhode Island poll is from Taubman Center for Public Policy; margin of error, four percentage points. Vermont poll is from American Research Group; margin of error 3.9 percentage points.
SOURCES: MCT, CNN.COM
—–
To see more of Newsday, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsday.com
Copyright (c) 2008, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.