FINALLY, it is over!  Sen. Barack Obama is officially the presumptive democratic nominee.  After fifteen months of rigorous, high octaine, campaigning, Barack Obama finally claimed victory last night over this historic primary race.   After losing South Dakota to Clinton 55% to 45%, but trouncing her in Montana 57% to 41%, Sen. Obama made history last night by becoming the first African-American/black person in the western world to head the ticket of a major political party.   And he did it by running a positive, uplifting campaign.  The Illinois Senator said in front of a crowd of 30,000 in Minnesota “I will be the Democratic nominee for the president of the United States of America.”  Sen. Obama ended the night with 2156 delegates and made headlines around the world.  PROGRESS.

Headlines around the World (see below) 

El Pais (Madrid): Obama se convierte en el primer candidato negro a la presidencia de Estados Unidos
^{(Obama becomes the first black candidate to the presidency of the United States)}

Financial Times (London): Obama clinches the Democratic nomination

The Telegraph (London): Obama limps over line despite Dakota defeat
^{Senator becomes the first black nominee in history despite Clinton win in South Dakota.}

Le Monde (Paris) Interrogations sur la stratégie de fin de campagne d’Hillary Clinton
^{(Questions on the ending strategy of Hillary Clinton’s campaign)}

Berliner Morgenpost (Berlin): Barack Obama lässt sich als Kandidat feiern
^{(Barack Obama can be celebrated as a candidate)}

Reforma (Mexico City): Hace Obama historia; asegura nominación
^{(Obama makes history; nomination assured)}

Clarín (Buenos Aires): Obama logró los delegados necesarios y es el candidato demócrata a la Casa Blanca
^{(Obama obtained the necessary delegates and is the democratic candidate to the White House)}

Jakarta Post (Jakarta, Indonesia): Obama seals nomination; McCain eager for battle

The Australian (Melbourne): Barack Obama claims nomination but Hillary Clinton hangs on

Al Jazeera (Doha, Qatar): Obama ‘wins Democratic nomination’
^{Illinois senator projected to become first African-American presidential candidate.}

Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem): Obama seals Democratic presidential nomination
^{Defeated Hillary Clinton maneuvers for the vice presidential spot on Illinois senator’s ticket without conceding her own loss.}

Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa): Obama first black nominee for White House
^{Clinton vows party unity}

China Daily (Beijing): Obama seals Democratic nomination
^{Barack Obama sealed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, a step toward his goal of becoming the first black US president.}

Hillary Clinton wins Puerto Rico!  Sen. Obama called Sen. Clinton to congratulate her on her win.  Unfortunately for Sen. Clinton, the turnout on the island was not enough to give her what she was hoping for in terms of a lead in the popular vote count.  The turnout was a disappointing 50% below what it has been in previous elections reaching a mere 384,000 of the 3 million registered voters.  The 55 delegates at stake will be divided proportionally.  Puerto Rico cannot vote in the general election therefore the primary does not speak to either candidates electability in November.  The Clinton family made a total of four visits to Puerto Rico in their vigorous effort to boost her popular vote count.  Sen. Clinton is expected to use the popular vote count to argue to superdelegates that she is the more electable candidate.  Also, Clinton’s claim of a higher popular vote count does not include caucus states, Guam, or the Virgin Islands.  States and territories won by Sen. Obama.  Clinton math….you gotta love it.  To clinch the nomination, the victorious candidate must win 2118 delegates by the end of the primary contest.  The previous 2025 number was increased yesterday to 2118 after the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee voted to include half of the Florida and Michigan delegations at the conclusion of their meeting on Saturday.  Thereby increasing the number of delegates to the 2118 number required to reach a majority because of the newly seated Michigan and Florida delegations.  The previous 2025 number did not include the Michigan and Florida delegations because both states delegates were stripped when both states moved up their primaries in violation of DNC rules.  The DNC RBC sat Florida as the voters voted in the Sunshine state giving Clinton 56 delegates to Obama’s 36.  From Michigan, Clinton received 38 delegates and Obama received 31 with Obama receiving the uncommitted votes in Michigan plus an additional four delegates to reach a total of 31 overall.   Including today’s results out of Puerto Rico as they stand now with 29% of the vote in, Obama has 2071.5 needing only 46.5 more delegates to clinch the required 2118 victory number.  Clinton has 1911, needing 207 more delegates to clinch the nomination.  There are a total of 204 undeclared superdelegates remaining.  After the results from South Dakota and Montana, Obama will need a mere 20-25, contingent upon the Montana and South Dakota margins of victory, of the undeclared superdelegates to win the nomination.  Clinton needs 195 of the remaining undeclared superdelegates to win the nomination.  On Tuesday, South Dakota and Montana go to the polls.  It is expected that the Obama campaign, in the next 48 hours, will roll out the additional 30 superdelegates it needs to clinch the nomination.  The Obama campaign is encouraging superdelegates to publicly declare before the Montana and South Dakota primaries so that it can declare an official victory soon after the polls close in these last two states.    

Clinton wins Pennsylvania.  As of Wednesday morning, according to the most recent tabulation from the Pennsylvania Secretary of State,  the current spread is 54.6% to 45.4% with 99.99% of the votes counted.  This is only a 9% spread which is much different than what the main stream media is reporting as 10%.  

Obama actually improved his numbers since Ohio, even though Pennsylvania is tailor made for Hillary Clinton.  In Ohio the spred was 10%, in Pennsylvania it is only 9%.  Pennsylvania has the second oldest population in the country, a demographic that is primed for a Clinton win.  This was also a closed primary where independents and republicans, two groups that Obama usually carries, were not allowed to vote.  Pennsylvania will divide 158 delegates proportionally between Obama and Clinton.  Turnout was 52%, double the turnout in 2004.  Exit polls reveal that voters whose primary issue is the economy are voting for Clinton 57 to 43.  Voters whose primary issue is Iraq are voting for Obama 57% to 43%.  There were 300,000 new voters in Pennsylvania, 35% of which are in Philadelphia and suburbs also known as Obama country.  17% of undecided voters made up their minds in the last three days.  Seniors vote to Clinton 61 to 38.  African-American vote to Obama 92 to 8.  White male to Clinton 55 to 45.  42%  says U.S. in a serious recession.  Less than 1% consider electability an issue.  Pennsylvania voters rated the following issues as most important: change 49%, experience 26%, cares about me 14%, electability 8%. 54% think that the economy is the most important issue, and 28% think that Iraq is most important.  1 in 5 Clinton voters feel that Obama will be the nominee.   64% of women voted for Clinton.  55% of white males voted for Clinton, 45% voted for Obama.  As for voters who thought that either candidate attacked the other unfairly, 67% thought that Clinton attacked Obama unfairly, and 48% thought that Obama attacked Obama unfairly.  Late deciders who decided within the last three days went to Clinton.  Newly registered democrats backed Obama.  In addition, 29% of those newly registered voters said that they would not vote for Clinton if she is the nominee. Clinton will probably net about 14 more delegates than Obama out of Pennsylvania, in addition to increasing her popular vote count by 200,000. 

Obama makes a comeback after last Tuesday.  Even though it is debateable as to who won Texas because Obama is leading in the second step of the primacaucus right now, Wyoming held its caucus today and Obama came out smelling like a rose.  Senator Barack Obama wins Wyoming handedly with a double digit margin over his rival Senator Hillary Clinton.  Obama will receive a proportional amount of the 12 delegates being allocated in Wyoming.  In addition, Wyoming also has 6 superdelegates.  The final tally was 61% to 38%.  This is a landslide victory for the senator from Illinois.  It was a record turnout in the the Equality State.  Nicknamed because it was the first state to give women the right to vote in 1869.  The irony is amazing.  It truly has earned its moniker as the state of equality given today’s results.   Another irony is that it is also the state that pushed John F. Kennedy over the top to win the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in 1960.  The turnout in Wyoming was so overwhelming that party officials had some issues accomodating everyone wanting to participate.  However, they were able to accomodate everyone.  There were 23 county caucuses across the state and a total of 59000 democrats registered in Wyoming.  Before the Wyoming caucus, Obama lead in delegate counts 1571 to Clinton’s 1462.  A total of 2025 delegates is needed to win the nomination. 

John McCain makes an interesting admission yesterday.  The Arizona Senator said yesterday that his winning the presidency is linked to his support of the Iraq war.  McCain said that if he cannot convince the American people that the surge is working then he will not win the White House in November.  McCain picked up two more wins yesterday,  Puerto Rico and American Somoa.  This gives McCain 971 delegates total.  The Senator is closing in on the 1191 needed to clinch the nomination.

Barack Obama won handily in Hawaii by 76% of the vote. Obama’s winning streak increases by 2, to equal 10 wins in a row.  It looks as if the Windy City Senator has won the momentum fight going into the March 4^th primaries in Texas and Ohio.  Wisconsin was a sort of test site for the Clinton campaign as to whether its decision to use negative campaigning would boost their numbers and slim Obama’s margin of victory.  Clinton campaign officials have said that they will continue to go negative because the strategy did work in Wisconsin, even though Obama won by 17 percentage points.  The campaign opines that the Wisconsin victory margin is less than that of the Potomac Primaries so the strategy was a success.  Wisconsin exit polls revealed that 58% of voters felt that the Clinton campaign unfairly criticized Obama.  Only 33% thought that the Obama campaign unfairly criticized Clinton.  Wisconsin is known for its distaste of negative campaigning. Further revelations from the exit polls showed that 51% of the voters thought that Obama would be the best Commander-in-Chief.  Also, when Wisconsin voters were asked who cares about them, 54% believes that Obama cares more about them as people.   For Clinton to be competitive for the nomination at this point, she will have to win over 70% of the popular vote in the remaining battleground states.  In which, she would receive 65 percent of the delegates in those states.  This would be a shock heard around the world if Clinton were able to pull off such a feat given the dynamics of the race thus far.  If Obama wins 65 percent of the remaining delegates, he can win the nomination with just elected delegates.  The Senator would not need the superdelegates, he could clinch the nomination just from the primary and caucus vote.  Obama now leads Clinton in elected delegates by about 150, has won more states, and leads in the popular vote.

Hillary Clinton has just won New Mexico.  The New Mexico primary took place on Super Tuesday. It took the the state nine days to count the ballots.  The race was very tight and Clinton won by a very slim margin.  However, a win, is a win, is a win……even if it is nine days late.  They must be using the finger counting method in the Land of Enchantment.  Even still, I am sure that Senator Clinton is very happy to finally get some good news.  Given the proportional system utilized by the democrats, the victory margin is slim enough that it is likely that both candidates will receive an equal amount of delegates.

Barack Obama and John McCain has won all three contests within the Potomac primaries.  On the democratic side, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia gave Barack Obama significant victories over Hillary Clinton.  More specifically, Virginia was very significant.  Considered a sort of bellwether state, Obama won over voters that have previously voted for Clinton.  For example, Obama won the latino vote 53% to Clintons 37%.  In Virginia and Maryland, Obama won 59% of the women vote.  Obama split the Virginia overall white vote with Clinton by winning 48% of the total demographic.  Further, Obama also won heavily among white men in Virginia.  In addition, Obama won the catholic vote.  As for Obama’s across-the-isle appeal, republicans represented 8% of the vote in the Virginia democratic primary and Obama won 70% of their vote.  The Senator from Illinois has managed to broaden his coalition by reaching across the isle with a unifying message.  Both candidates were vying heavily for Virginia voters.  Clinton considered Virginia her best chance of a win within this group of contests.  However, Obama won a substantial victories over Clinton in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.  The final tally for Virginia is 64% to 35%, Maryland, 59% to 37% and the District of Columbia, 75% to 24%.  These wins will give Obama eight victories in a row thereby giving Obama a delegate lead over Clinton.  Before this contest, the Associated Press reported that Clinton lead with 1136 delegates to Obama’s 1108.  After the Potomac primaries, Obama takes the lead with 1210 delegates and Clinton falls slightly behind with 1188 delegates.  These AP totals includes Superdelegates.   Additionally, Obama has won a total of 21 states to Clinton’s 10.  The Clinton campaign has said that their focus is on the March 4th primaries of Ohio and Texas.  Clinton is already campaigning in the Lone Star State in hopes of building a firewall against the Obama momentum.  Though, continued wins by Obama could put a kink in Clinton’s strategy.  It will be difficult for the Clinton campaign to spin eight successive wins by Obama as insignificant.   As damage control, Clinton made telephone calls to several of her donors and supporters asking them to hang in there with her until Ohio and Texas.  However, if Obama’s momentum continues to build, Ohio and Texas may not be the result that the Clinton campaign expects. Obama has already hit the ground in Wisconsin campaigning for its primary on February 19th.  As for the Republicans, McCain also won all of the Potomac primaries.  It seems that McCain in winning over conservatives, at least he did so in Virginia and Maryland.  The final tallys were Virginia, McCain 50% and Huckabee 41%, in Maryland McCain 59% and Huckabee 29%. and the District of Columbia, McCain 68% and 35%.  Virginia is especially significant due the large amount of conservatives in that state.  The fact that McCain won Virginia may be an indication that the tide may be turning and the far right of the GOP has begun to rally around the Arizona senator.  Huckabee was hoping to win Virginia to legitimize his continued participation in the race.  However, the former Arkansas govenor is not dropping out and vows to stay in the race uintil McCain hits the magic number of 1191 delegates.   The McCain campaign has labeled the affable Arkansan an “irritant.” After McCain’s win of Virginia, most have concluded that he is the Republican nominee.  There isn’t a math calculation that adds up to Huckabee becoming the GOP nominee for the 2008 Presidential niomination.  As a side note:  Clinton’s deputy campaign manager, Mike Henry, resigns.

Barack Obama proves again that he is a force to be reckon with.  The Jr. Senator won both Nebraska and Washington 68% to Clinton’s 32%.  Obama also won 57% of the Louisiana vote and 90% of the Virgin Islands vote.  This has been a great night for Obama.  There was a total of 161 delegates up for grabs tonight.  In the states where Clinton received at least 15% of the vote, the delegates will be split proportionally between the two candidates.  The candidates move on to the Maine caucuses today where 24 delegates are at stake. Next stop, the Potomac, or the beltway primaries on Feb 12th. Both candidates will be battling for precious delegates in the District of Columbia, 37 delegates, Maryland, 99 delegates, and Virginia for 101 delegates.

Hillary Clinton has won the beauty contest in Florida.  Unfortunately for the Clinton campaign, Florida has been stripped of all its delegates.  After Obama’s momentous win in South Carolina, the Clinton campaign decided that Florida is hugely important. Most report that the sudden interest in Florida by the Clinton campaign is an attempt to eclipse or break Obama’s momentum going into Super Tuesday.  Because we recognize the obviousness of this campaign strategy, I ask…can you be a bit less obvious?  News flash to the candidates…we are a pretty bright electorate once we decide to engage.   This Clinton win has been reported as based purely on name recognition.  All of the democratic candidates, including Clinton, signed a pledge to boycott the Florida primary after Florida moved up its primary date in violation of Democratic National Committee rules.  However, the Clintons have been in national politics for twenty years.  Therefore, and by default, when voters go to the polls and they have not had a chance to get to know the two other candidates, they are more likely to choose what is familiar, i.e., Hillary Clinton.  Therefore, because the Clintons have a built-in advantage in that they are more famous and have been on the national political scene a lot longer than the other two candidates, any win in Florida does not represent a true decision or endorsement by Floridians.  All the candidates agreed not to campaign in Florida, and Edwards and Obama specifically, were prohibited from familiarizing Florida voters with their policy agenda.  Because none of the candidates were able to explain why each would be the best candidate to represent Floridian interests in the general election, the Clinton win is disingenuous and hallow and does not represent a true victory in an informed voter or substantive sense.  Note:  The majority of voters who voted a month ago, and before Iowa or South Carolina, overwhelmingly voted for Hillary.  However, the majority of voters who voted after Iowa and South Carolina went overwhelmingly for Obama.

John McCain takes Florida and is awarded a whopping 57 delegates!  This has been a pivotal race for all of the republican candidates due to the significant amount of delegates at stake.  Before the Florida primary, the total delegates for each candidate were: Romney 59, Huckabee 40, McCain 36, Paul 4, and Giuliani 1.  With the Florida win, McCain now has a total of 97 delegates. This is also a big win for McCain for other reasons.  Because McCain’s campaign is reported to be running on fumes, this win will provide enormous fundraising potential for the candidate.  Now that McCain has demonstrated that he can win a closed republican primary, as opposed to an open primary where republicans and independents are permitted to vote, republicans are a bit more convinced about his candidacy.  This will provide a much needed boost for McCain into Super Tuesday.  However, the republican race is far from over.  Because it was such a close race, Romney will most likely continue through Super Tuesday.  Both candidates are preparing for the California debate, which is the final debate before Super Tuesday.