TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Wisconsin Win Solidifies Obama's Front-Runner Status

ADVERTISEMENT

By DAVID ESPO, The Associated Press

Published: February 20, 2008

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama cruised past a fading Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Wisconsin primary Tuesday night, gaining the upper hand in a Democratic presidential race for the ages.

It was Obama's ninth straight victory during the past three weeks, and left the former first lady in need of a comeback in a race she long commanded as front-runner.

"The change we seek is still months and miles away," Obama told a boisterous crowd in Houston.

He cut deeply into Clinton's political bedrock in Wisconsin, splitting the support of white women in Wisconsin almost evenly with the former first lady and running well among working-class voters in the blue-collar battleground, according to polling place interviews.

The economy and trade were key issues in the race, and seven in 10 voters said international trade has resulted in lost jobs in Wisconsin. Fewer than one in five said trade has created more jobs than it has lost.

Clinton made no mention of her defeat, and showed no sign of surrender in an appearance in Youngstown, Ohio.

"Both Senator Obama and I would make history," Clinton said. "But only one of us is ready on Day One to be commander in chief, ready to manage our economy, and ready to defeat the Republicans. Only one of us has spent 35 years being a doer, a fighter and a champion for those who need a voice."

In a clear sign of their standing in the race, most cable television networks abruptly cut away from coverage of Clinton's rally when Obama began to speak in Texas.

McCain won the Republican primary with ease, dispatching former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and edging closer to the 1,191 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination at the party convention in St. Paul, Minn., in the summer. McCain also won the Republican primary in Washington.

The Associated Press made its calls based on surveys of voters as they left the polls.

In a scarcely veiled attack on Obama, the Republican nominee-in-waiting said, "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."

Wisconsin offered 74 national convention delegates. There were 20 delegates at stake in caucuses in Hawaii.

Obama is hoping for a strong showing in Hawaii, where was born. Neither he nor Clinton traveled to Hawaii to campaign, but both of them conducted news interviews in the hours leading up to the caucuses, which were set to conclude at 12:30 a.m. Eastern time today. Clinton also dispatched her daughter, Chelsea, to campaign there.

With the votes counted in nearly three-quarters of Wisconsin's precincts, Obama was winning 57 percent of the vote to 42 percent for Clinton.The Illinois senator's victory left him with 1,303 delegates in The Associated Press' count, compared with 1,233 for Clinton. It takes 2,025 to win the nomination at the party's national convention in Denver.

Obama began the evening with eight straight primary and caucus victories, a remarkable run that has propelled him past Clinton in the overall delegate race and enabled him to chip away at her advantage among elected officials within the party who will have convention votes as superdelegates.

The Democrats' focus on trade was certain to intensify, with primaries in Ohio in two weeks.

Obama's campaign has already distributed mailings critical of Clinton on the issue in Ohio. "Bad trade deals like NAFTA hit Ohio harder than most states. Only Barack Obama consistently opposed NAFTA," it said.

Obama was in Texas, which has primaries and caucuses on March 4, and Clinton was in Ohio as the votes were counted in Wisconsin.

Clinton's aides initially signaled she would virtually concede Wisconsin, and she spent less time in the state than Obama.

Even so, she ran a television ad that accused her rival of ducking a debate in the state and added that she had the only health care plan that would cover all Americans and the only economic plan to stop home foreclosures. "Maybe he'd prefer to give speeches than have to answer questions" the commercial said.

Obama countered with an ad of his own, saying his health care plan would cover more people.

The campaign grew increasingly testy over the weekend, when Clinton's aides accused Obama of plagiarism for delivering a speech that included words that had first been uttered by Deval Patrick, the Massachusetts governor and a friend of Obama.

"I really don't think this is too big of a deal," Obama said, eager to lay the issue to rest quickly. He said Clinton had used his slogans, too.

Even before the votes were tallied in one state, the campaigners were looking ahead.

Texas and Ohio hold primaries on March 4, and some of Clinton's backers have said the onetime front-runner cannot afford to lose either. Already, she and Obama have begun advertising in Texas, with 193 delegates, and Ohio, with 141, and both visited the two states in the days before the Wisconsin primary.

The Pennsylvania primary, with 158 delegates, is April 22, the last big state to vote.

Information from The New York Times was used in this report.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT