Day: January 19, 2008

Who says a “W” is a “W” when it’s really the delegate count that determines the genuine winner?

Barack Obama may have won the most delegates in Saturday’s Nevada Caucus, even though Hillary Clinton bested his statewide turnout by about six points.

A source with knowledge of the Nevada Democratic Party’s projections told The Nation that under the arcane weighting system, Obama would win 13 national convention delegates and Clinton would win 12 delegates. The state party has not released an official count yet.

Barack Obama released an official statement celebrating a delegate victory. “We came from over twenty-five points behind to win more national convention delegates than Hillary Clinton because we performed well all across the state, including rural areas where Democrats have traditionally struggled,” he said.

Spin, spin, spin. Yet, the delegate count is important, and Obama deserves to call this a win. It means February 5th is just as important for the Democrats as it is for the Republicans.

Tags:
2008 Election, Barack Obama, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Nevada, Politics, Republicans

If McCain and Huckabee are neck and neck in South Carolina, that must mean that Fred Thompson won’t win. And what if?

“Fred Thompson made it clear at a midday campaign stop that he won’t continue in the race without a strong showing out of South Carolina tonight. ‘We’ll see how we have to do, we’ll see what the results are,’ Thompson said, when questioned at a small press availability if he needed to win to go forward. ‘I’ve always said I have to do very well here; there’s no question about that. I stand by that. … We won’t have too much longer to wait.'”

Given what looks like a loss in South Carolina, when will Fred pull out? Tonight? Sunday? And who will he endorse? Romney? McCain? If he gets behind McCain, look for a whole lotta conservative backlash. My guess is he’ll wait out an endorsement until the nomination comes into focus a bit more.

Update: McCain wins South Carolina.

Tags:
2008 Election, Campaign, GOP, Republicans, Fred Thompson, South Carolina

Do we have an official front runner now?

Mitt Romney won the Nevada Republican caucuses Saturday, scoring dramatic back-to-back victories in the race for the nomination.

With 86 percent of caucus sites reporting, Romney had 53 percent in the state, followed by John McCain with 13 percent, Ron Paul with 13 percent, Mike Huckabee with 8 percent, Fred Thompson with 8 percent, Rudy Giuliani with 2 percent and Duncan Hunter with 2 percent.

Mitt just didn’t win Nevada. He pulled out a can o’ whupass and cleaned up. Mr. Romney leads the delegate race right now, by a pretty nice margin too. Of course, nothing is settled until February 5th, but as of now, he’s sittin’ pretty.

Question is, can I support him if he does turn out to be the GOP nominee?

Tags:
2008 Election, Mitt Romney, Politics, Republicans, Nevada, GOP