McCain is smiling as Hillary up but not in, Obama down, not out

Tuesday’s results have made the fight muddier for the two Democratic contenders, much to the advantage of McCain. Obama said in San Antonio that he was still leading in terms of the number of delegates who will finally choose the Democratic presidential nominee during the August convention. Under the complicated Texas electoral system, superdelegates (elected party officials) are now set to swing the balance of power for the two Democratic contenders.

Midway through the counting when Clinton looked set to vindicate her reputation as a “comeback kid”, Obama, who won the Vermont primary, congratulated McCain for winning all four states and cementing the Republican nomination. He then walked up to a somewhat sombre crowd outside the municipal auditorium.

As he emerged from the building, wife Michelle’s favourite Stevie Wonder number began blaring: “Like a fool I went and stayed too long, now I am wondering if your love is still strong, ooh baby, here I am signed, sealed, delivered.”

The predominantly young crowd, which was swinging and dancing three hours ago when counting started, now stood frozen. Obama’s consecutive wins in 11 primaries had been stalled on another Super Tuesday and a long haul lay ahead — Clinton was back in contention for the Democratic ticket.

“No matter what happens tonight we have nearly the same delegate lead we had this morning and we are on our way to winning this nomination,” Obama told his supporters, using ‘hope’ and ‘change’ at least eight times in his 10-minute address. On plans for students, he said he will not allow cost to become a hindrance for American children “in competing with children in India or China”. It was apparently an extension of his campaign against outsourcing of jobs by US companies.

Al Green, US House of Representative from Texas, who had come to Obama’s rally, put up a brave front, saying one victory or loss could not decide a Presidential nomination. “We all knew it was going to be a close fight. But he (Obama) still represents the will of the people and leads in the number of delegates. He is well on the highway to the White House,” Green told The Indian Express.

The modest group of supporters did raise some slogans and roars but this paled against the wild celebrations in the Clinton camp in Ohio where supporters sent up balloons and all kinds of colourful objects into the air as Clinton, clearly delighted, addressed them.

“As Ohio goes, so goes the nation. This nation is coming back and so is the campaign,” said Hillary, referring to that little bit of recent history about nobody making it to the White House without winning the Ohio primary. “People of Ohio have said we are going on and we are going on. We are going strong and we are going all the way,” she said.

Riding the crest of 11 consecutive wins, Obama was hoping to deliver a knockout blow to Clinton in the Tuesday primaries and caucuses. Even Bill Clinton had called Texas and Ohio as “must wins” for his wife.

The traditional support base of Hispanics and women were said to have given Clinton an edge in the latest round. While Obama held on to the African-American community as also a large percentage of the youth, he failed to breach Clinton’s votebank.

As the counting of votes continued till Wednesday afternoon, there was no clear picture on the exact equation of delegates. According to the Associated Press count, Hillary who had been trailing Obama by 100 delegates until Tuesday had reduced the margin after her victories in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island. As per the count, Hillary now has 1,391 delegates as against Obama’s 1,477.

As they now gear for another major battle in Pennsylvania in April and many others in the run up to the party convention in August, it looks unlikely that either of them will reach the magic figure of 2,025 delegates to win the nomination. Some 800 superdelegates are set to play a decisive role in choosing the Democratic nominee.

Exit polls in Texas and Ohio suggested that one in five voters had made up his or her mind in the last three days of the campaign — a period marked by a controversy surrounding Obama’s ties with businessman Tony Rezko whose corruption trial began this week and another controversy about a key economic advisor of Obama telling Canadian officials in Chicago that the Senator’s stance on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was mere “political positioning” and that Obama was not a protectionist.

Exit polls showed that Hillary had been able to recapture her wavering support base among Hispanics, women, whites, blue-collar and older voters. Obama, on the other hand, got solid backing of the youth and Afro-Americans. Although he did make a dent into Hillary’s votebank of white women and the elderly, it was limited to Vermont where he registered a resounding victory.