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Showdown in North Carolina and Indiana
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Today is the last of the remaining “big state” Democratic primaries. Voters in North Carolina and Indiana will go to the polls. After today, there are more undecided superdelegates than state delegates to win.
Call it, showdown in North Carolina and Indiana.
What’s at stake:
North Carolina has 134 delegates up for grabs.
Indiana has 85 delegates up for grabs.
Where the delegate count stands today:
| OBAMA | 1,748 |  |
| CLINTON | 1,609 | |
| EDWARDS | 18 | |
2,025 delegates are needed to secure the Democratic nomination.
To cinch the nomination, Barack Obama will need 277 additional delegates. Hillary Clinton will need 416 additional delegates. Barack Obama has a 139 delegate advantage.
SOURCE: Real Clear Politics
What the experts say to look for in North Carolina.
What the experts say to look for in Indiana.
Most political strategists and experts expect Barack Obama to win North Carolina by 7 points to as many as 15 points, depending on the size of the African American turnout. Indiana is seen as a toss-up, with Hillary Clinton expected to win by as many as 6 points.
Polls in North Carolina close at 7:30pm. Polls in Indiana close at 6:00pm.
40 Comments
at
Can this please be over soon… I would have never guessed that this would all unfold this way.
Deep and impatient sigh.
at
Today should be the end of this circus.
Obama’s advantage in North Carolina is so huge that it would take a miracle for Hillary to catch him and I don’t believe in miracles.
If Hillary doesn’t fold up her tent tonight and concede to Obama, then it’s clear she’s unhinged and belongs in a psyche ward for observation.
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Tom339 - Now don’t you know the feminists are going to call you all sorts of names like “misogynist” and “sexist.” Are you prepared for their onslaught?
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The talkingheads on MSNBC said this morning we should have a clear idea of who is winning and who isn’t winning by 2:00PM. I sure hope the media can wean itself off this stupid idea that there is a genuine horse race underway. This thing was decided back when Obama won Maryland and Virginia.
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Christopher - Another excellent summary and very concise.
As others have suggested, I hope today wraps it all up and the Democratic party has its unofficial nominee to run against McCain. This primary has gone on too long and even for those of use who like politics, there’s a weariness setting in that I find troubling.
Imagine what it is like for people who don’t have any interest in politics?
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Hillary tells an audience in North Carolina:
“This primary election on Tuesday is a game changer. This is going to make a huge difference in what happens going forward. The entire country – probably even a lot of the world is looking to see what North Carolina decides.”
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/05/clinton-tuesday.html
Apparently, it’s Hillary that doesn’t understand that game is over for her and her ugly campaign.
Is she really so lame to think she has crossover appeal to Obama’s supporter? If she were to win the nomination, Obama’s peeps will either stay home or vote for McCain.
The Suffolk University polls proves it.
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What? It’s over all ready? The primary seems like it just got started 200 years ago. Where have I been?
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This thing was decided back when Obama won Maryland and Virginia.
Maybe earlier. Like as far back as when Hillary made the announcement she was “in it, to win it.”
No politician in modern memory is more polarizing that Bill’s wife. People either love her or hate her and judging from the fact that Obama is ahead by 700,000 popular votes, I think most people hate her.
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I see MSNBC has its resident Republican asswipe, Brian Williams on the air right now trying to portray Barack Obama as the new Michael Dukakis.
Well done, MSNBC. On election day, trying to insert yourself in the election by tarring Obama with Dukakis’ baggage in the minds of undecideds.
Aren’t there rules about this sort of thing?
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I didn’t know Indiana closes at 6p.m.
So we should have some preliminary, raw numbers from the MSM by 6:30p.m., and then we wait for the results from North Carolina. Of course, if Obama take North Carolina and Hillary Clinton takes Indiana, we could be right back where we started tomorrow.
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Bring it home ! Obama and people of IN. and NC. Bring it home, rid us of the borg queen please !!!
oh gawd i did kill my tv - those fuckwits in the media , covering this like a circus, and wtF michael Dukakis of for fuck sake !
,live in the freakin past MUCH - its maddening enough reading that Woodcliffe - let alone watching it…I will be checking back here later…please let this be the end of it - Hillary go the fuck home , yes she has in her way pushed to my less than civil limit..i.e. cursing and foul language..however her tactics give new meaning to slime. And i am one whom if i have a mouthful of shit - i will say so.
Please let Obama have decisive victories..ala the ones he has had in 13 OTHER primaries..(yes that was a prayer typed out here)
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Another great post, Chris.
I’m with the others who wrote they’re tired of this primary. If it had been fought on the merits and the issues and not the personal and racial attacks unleashed by the Clintons then, it would’ve been more compelling and intriguing but, the Clintons can’t run a clean campaign. They’re not hardwired to so things above board.
Regarding Indiana and North Carolina, let’s say they split the states, Clinton still can’t overtake Obama’s lead. I know it; Obama knows it; even Hillary Clinton knows it. This is why she was out there today saying the delegate number isn’t 2,025 but now, 2,208 — which includes Florida and Michigan. Call it the Clinton metric.
But the rules are the rules and if the Clintons don’t like the rules, they should leaves the Democratic party and become Republicans. They hate rules too.
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Please, God, please don’t let the good people of Indiana and NC become bigots when they go into the booth. Let them see the light, call bullshit, and shut down the Clinton machine.
Thank you and amen, Diane
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Hillary for President!!
C’MON and vote for Hillary North Carolina and Indiana!!
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Please let it be over soon. It is such an ungodly mess now that we can’t go on like this. If Hillary wins Indiana and does well in NC, you KNOW she isn’t going home…
Good summary.
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When the sun comes up tomorrow, I predict we will be close to where we are today but, the delegate numbers for each candidate will simply be larger.
North Carolina is tailored made for Obama: a large African American population, highly educated professionals in the research triangle, with doctors, scientists and nurses. Hillary has trouble with these demographics.
Indiana is a very different state. It’s quite like Ohio with a large, rural redneck population of racist whites who would no more vote for Obama than they would vote for Ted Kennedy. Obama will do well in college areas but I think Indiana belongs to Hillary.
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What happened to John Edwards? I expected he would endorse someone but not a word from him. Is he staying on the sidelines so he will be attractive choice for either of them to head up Health & Human Services or Education? I really hoped to hear Edwards come out strong for Obama.
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What the hell is it with Tweety who keeps talking about “Hillary’s superior physical stamina?”
He sounds like one of those freaky straight guys who likes to be squashed by a large woman.
Tweety’s another typically repressed Catholic boy from Pennsylvania.
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Hi Aunt Peg,
You know what they say about Catholic men, “the more Catholic, the repressed.” But paradoxically, this is the thing that makes them more adventurous, if you get my drift.
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Aunt Peg & Rachel - Au contraire! Atheists do it better.
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Early exit polling from North Carolina has Obama up 18 points.
Absentee ballots favor Obama in North Carolina 3-to-1.
If I were a Democratic candidate, I’d prefer to be favored in North Carolina because it has 50 more delegates on the table compared to Indiana.
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Howard Dean, Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi need to find their pouch and step in to end this circus. If Hillary doesn’t drop out after she’s had her fun today, they knock some sense into her with the back of their hands, they way you do with a errant child acting out at the doctor’s office.
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Republican anchor Tim Russert sounds like he is still in love with Shillery on MSNBC.
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If the Hillborg wins Indiana (which she probably will), she will claim a grand victory and that America really, really, REALLY likes her and that she’s “in it to win it.” Maybe she means she’s in it to win it…for McCain.
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Hilz was declared the loser in NC exactly 4 minutes after the polls closed.
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Barack Obama wins NC by a landslide? Must be true because the Huffington Post is calling him the “Presumptive Nominee.” Shit, I could of told all of you he was the presumptive nominee back when he swept the Chesapeake trifecta of DC, Maryland and Virginia. Concede, Hillary, You’re toast.
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Indiana is primarily a Republican state and in all reality it has much racism meshed within, from the Klan home base in Elwood, to the lynchings in Gas City to the race riots in Kokomo.
That is Hillary’s group.
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Indiana, like Texas, Ohio and Idaho, have a history of electing extremists to public offfice. Indiana has a neo-Nazi running in an Indianapolis district of poor whites. When both Indiana and North Carolina is counted, it looks like Obama will pick up the most delegates. Sorry media but, Obama is still our front runner.
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What Hillary Clinton needs to do now is behave very respectfully to Barack Obama and accord him the respect he’s earned.
If she behaves, maybe, just maybe, he will ask her to be his running mate. This is the best she can hope for in a campaign that was run terribly and ended up alienating many groups and demographics.
Personally, I think Barack can do much, much better in selecting a Veep choice but, at the end of the day, it’s up to him.
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Yay! NC 4 Barack!
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Yay! NC 4 Barack!
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I’m so pleased for Obama!
I was afraid he might not do as well as the polling results seem to suggest he’s done in both North Carolina and Indiana.
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The old bag needs to suspend her campaign here and now. Her presence defies logic and she can’t make a case to the superdelegates to come over to her side. If she cares about the party and a Democrat winning the presidency, Hillary needs to drop out now.
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Looks like Hillary’s squeaking by in IL …52% - 48%… Certainly not what they expected.
Peace,
=RD=
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Indiana’s a freakin’ knuckle-biter… This is awesome!
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“This thing was decided back when Obama won Maryland and Virginia.”
I remember getting some major good chills after Wisconsin’s primary.
I have to admit I thought Indy would go HRC by 8-10 and NC for Obama by 6.
I am so glad this night was not only a slap in the face for HRC and her camp but the experts and pollsters that started creeping my mind with doubt.
I know I am not alone in thinking the Wright fiasco hardly had an inkling of an effect on my support for Obama, actually through it all I felt a lot of sympathy for him and his family and how disappointed he must of felt with Wright’s zeal for attention. He could of expected it from any given politician but from someone who calls himself a pastor/reverend and friend to be such a media whore must be devastating.
Godspeed Obama, your time is nearing and we can hardly wait!
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It’s looking like a great night all around for Obama. All of the pundits saying Hillary is finished. Indiana may even go for Obama…5% left to count and still too close to call…
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Dean, Gore, Pelosi and Edwards have done the right thing. The honorable thing. If they had come out earlier and told Hillary to quit it would have disenfranchised the people in the states that hadn’t yet voted and still might have changed the dynamics of the race.
Now that Barack has basically locked it up, the Powers that Be should talk to Hillary privately, reach what ever agreement they can, and then formally endorse Barack.
That’s how grownups play the game.
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she doesnt have the money to go on — and she doesnt have the numbers to catch
i hope she shows some grace in the next two weeks and realizes that is it over…. and concedes with some dignity
asking a lot, but i hope she does
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She needs to go and soon. Don’t drag it out all the way to Puerto Rico. Her departure can’t come soon enough for me.
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