March 4th Mini Super Tuesday Battle

Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont, made a block of 4 primary states voting on Mini-Super Tuesday. The results effectively ended the Republican primary circuit as John McCain reached the magic number to be the Republican Party’s nominee as he proceeded to win all of the primary states in a clean sweep.

Photo: March 4th Mini Super Tuesday Battle

McCain’s Tuesday night statistics: Ohio 60% (85 delegates), Rhode Island 65% (13 delegates), Texas 51% (121 delegates), Vermont 72% (17 delegates). At this point, Mike Huckabee conceded defeat.

Vermont began the night’s events with early victories for both Obama and McCain. With 86% reporting Obama received 60% (9 delegates) and Clinton received 38% (6 delegates).

Clinton made a comeback in Ohio and Rhode Island. In Ohio, the vote with 91% reporting was 54% (71 delegates) for Clinton and Obama 44% (59 delegates). In Rhode Island with 98% reporting Clinton received 58% (13 delegates) and Obama 40% (8 delegates).

Texas tallies show a lead for Senator Obama even though the media announces a Clinton victory. With 40% counted, Obama has 56% compared to 44% for Clinton. How this translates into a Clinton victory defies logic. One notable trend, however, was declared by a voter who said he is a Republican and voted in the Democratic primary for Clinton so as to squash the Obama momentum since Clinton will be easier for McCain to defeat in November.

Increasingly, the Democratic campaign is getting to be a dirty media war where Clinton’s pathetic ramblings receive number one spot. She insists that her record of extensive experience with failure prepares her to lead the country. Clearly she managed to hoodwink the voters of Ohio.

Florida’s Republican governor, Charlie Crist, has indicated he’s ready to allow Democrats to hold another primary in the state if necessary to allow Florida delegates have a say at the Democratic Convention. Right now, the Democratic National Committee has prohibited Florida from seating those delegates because the state moved up its primary against party rules. (The same is true for the Democrats in Michigan.)

Hillary Clinton’s campaign would strongly prefer primaries as opposed to caucuses. That’s because Barack Obama has had a clear advantage when it comes to caucus results. So in effect, Crist would be doing her campaign a huge favor by authorizing another primary in Florida. The same, by the way, would be true if Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm did the same thing in her state.

The last major primary is to be held in Pennsylvania on April 22, after small contests in Mississippi, Wyoming and Guam. It is likely that super delegates will ultimately be charged with creating the nominee for the Democratic Party. Whether or not they will engage in huckster party politics or listen to the voters who have spoken in the majority of the contests, remains to be seen.

Lisa KARPOVA

PRAVDA.Ru

USA/CANADA