DELEGATES DECIDE: With only two weeks left in the presidential primaries, Barack Obama claims victory with his delegate lead while Hillary Clinton says she’ll see the race through to the end.

Even though Obama lost Kentucky to Clinton on Tuesday, he owns the majority of committed delegates at this point. With more than 300 delegates and 200 superdelegates yet to be officially allocated, Clinton is determined to stay in the race.

Democratic Primary Update

Clinton won the Kentucky primary by a wide margin, but Obama still gained more delegates in Kentucky and Oregon than he needed to reach a majority.

The results in Kentucky were:

• Clinton: 72% of the vote, 37 delegates
• Obama: 27% of the vote, 14 delegates

In Oregon, with mail-in ballots still being counted and 15 delegates unallocated, the results looked like this at end of day Wednesday:

• Clinton: 42% of the vote, 15 delegates
• Obama: 58% of the vote, 22 delegates

Obama currently exceeds the number needed to reach a majority of elected delegates. The number varies, though, depending on the source. There are 2,026 delegates and superdelegates possible for Democratic nomination. Here’s where the candidates stand as of late Wednesday according to two different projections:

Associated Press

• Obama = 1,962 delegates
• Clinton = 1,779 delegates

The New York Times

• Obama = 1,953.5 delegates
• Clinton = 1,769 delegates

Obama Tackles Challenges

Addressing a crowd on Tuesday in Des Moines, Iowa, Obama said regarding his victory, “We have returned to Iowa with a majority of delegates elected by the American people, and you have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for president of the United States of America.” (The New York Times, 05/21/08)

Optimistic that he’ll win the presidential primaries, Obama now turns his attention to tackling the following challenges:

• earning the support of dissatisfied Clinton backers
• gaining the support of working-class whites, Hispanics and Jews
• dealing with criticism from probable Republican nominee John McCain, especially regarding national security

Clinton Stays in the Race

Despite some of her closest advisors’ recommendations, Clinton is determined to remain in the race on the off-chance that an unpredicted scandal or swing in electoral politics could arise and harm Obama’s candidacy.

"This is one of the closest races for a party's nomination in modern history," she said. "We are winning the popular vote, and I am more determined than ever to see that every vote is cast and every ballot is counted." (International Herald Tribune, 05/21/08)

However, should her campaign quit, or lose, Clinton plans immediately to support Obama. Her intention would be to mend party divisions that could make it difficult for Democrats to band together once the presidential election process begins.

Republican Primary Update

John McCain is the presumed Republican nominee, with 110% of the number of delegates (1,314) needed to win the party’s nomination.

McCain’s master of advertising, Mark McKinnon, quit the campaign to uphold a pledge he made last year not to work against an Obama candidacy. McKinnon was the fifth member of McCain’s campaign to recently resign.

Copyright © 2009 Informify

Sources

The Early Word: Two More Weeks (The New York Times, 05/21/08)

Obama declares nomination ‘within reach’ (International Herald Tribune, 05/21/08)

Obama crosses key threshold (USA Today, 5/20/08)

Question for Readers:

Do you think the currently divided Democratic Party will coalesce after a Democratic presidential nominee is named?