Posted on 05/13/2008 5:49:05 PM PDT by Morgana
CBS/AP) Hillary Rodham Clinton has defeated Barack Obama in the West Virginia primary, CBS News projects. CBS News exit polling shows that Clinton could win the state by a sizable margin.
West Virginia Results
Obama conceded defeat in advance in the state as he looked ahead to the Oregon primary later in the month and the campaign against Republican John McCain.
Clinton won with nearly every demographic group, according to exit polls, including men, women, young voters, older voters, people earning less than $50,000 a year and those earning more than that. (See more exit poll analysis.)
Obama won the support of those who said "change" was the most important quality they were looking for in their vote, those who said the gas tax should not be suspended and those who said that Obama does not share the views of his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
West Virginia voters viewed Clinton as the candidate with the best chance of beating John McCain in the general election. Sixty-one percent thought Clinton could beat McCain, while 31 percent though Obama could win in November.
Seventy percent of West Virginia Democratic voters describe Clinton as sharing their own values, while only 47 percent said that Obama does.
Clinton's aides contended that her strength with blue collar voters - already demonstrated in primaries in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana - makes her the more electable candidate in the fall.
Even before the polls closed, spokesman Mo Elleithee said the primary showed voters "don't want to be told that this thing is over. The people of West Virginia rejected the rush to call this thing over. They sent a very clear message tonight that Hillary Clinton is the best person to take on John McCain in the fall."
Just 23 percent of Clinton voters in the West Virginia primary say they would be satisfied if Obama becomes the Democratic nominee. Three in four Clinton supporters would be dissatisfied with Obama carrying the Democratic banner-the highest number in the primaries to date.
Thirty-eight percent of West Virginia's Obama voters say they would be satisfied if Clinton becomes the nominee, and 61 percent would be dissatisfied. That level of dissatisfaction is similar to what it was in Indiana when 50 percent of Obama voters said they would be dissatisfied if Clinton was the nominee.
Looking ahead to the general election, 36 percent of Clinton voters in West Virginia say they would vote for Obama if he becomes the nominee, while 35 percent plan to vote for McCain and 24 percent say they won't vote at all. Fifty-one percent of Obama voters in West Virginia say they would vote for Clinton if she's the nominee, 31 percent plan to vote for McCain and 14 percent say they'll stay home in November.
The controversy over Obama's former pastor Rev. Wright seems to have resonated in West Virginia where 51 percent of Democratic voters think Obama shares Wright's views and 47 percent say he does not.
Seventy percent of Clinton voters think the race for the Democratic nomination should continue until she wins, while 25 percent think the race should end as soon as possible, even if Clinton doesn't win.
Obama campaigned lightly in the state, conceding defeat in advance while looking ahead to the Oregon primary later in the month and the fall campaign against McCain.
"This is our chance to build a new majority of Democrats and independents and Republicans who know that four more years of George Bush just won't do," Obama said in Missouri, which looms as a battleground state in the fall.
"This is our moment to turn the page on the divisions and distractions that pass for politics in Washington," added the man seeking to become the fist black presidential nominee of a major party.
West Virginia had 28 delegates at stake, to be awarded proportionally according to the popular vote.
Obama began the day with 1,871 delegates to 1,690 for Clinton, out of 2,025 needed to clinch the nomination at the party convention in Denver this summer, according to the latest CBS News count.
The delegate tally aside, the former first lady struggled to overcome an emerging Democratic consensus that Obama effectively wrapped up the nomination last week with a victory in the North Carolina primary and a narrow loss in Indiana.
In the days since, close to 30 superdelegates have swung behind Obama, evidence that party officials were beginning to coalesce around the first-term Illinois senator who is seeking to become the first black to win a major party presidential nomination. Three of his new supporters formerly backed Clinton, who surrendered her lead in superdelegates late last week for the first time since the campaign began.
With her campaign more than $20 million in debt, Clinton desperately needs to raise money following her West Virginia win, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod. On Wednesday, she's calling her top fundraisers to her Washington home to see if there is a way out of her campaign's dire financial shape.
The former first lady spent parts of several days campaigning in West Virginia in search of victory.
She refrained from criticizing Obama directly, but had a cautionary word nonetheless for party leaders who seemed eager to pivot to the fall campaign. "I keep telling people, no Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia," she said at Tudor's Biscuit World in the state's capital city.
Obama was in the state on Monday, but it was clear he was looking beyond the primary.
He said several days ago he expected Clinton to win by significant margins both in West Virginia and Kentucky, which holds its primary next week. And on Monday, he tried to set the bar of expectations exceedingly low, suggesting that anything above 20 percent would constitute a good showing.
He devoted more time to Oregon, which also holds a primary next week, and announced plans to campaign in several other states that loom as battlegrounds in the fall against McCain.
Among them are Florida and Michigan, two states that held early primaries in defiance of national Democratic Party rules. The two states combined have 44 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, and Obama has not yet campaigned in either.
Obama also broke from his usual practice by wearing a flag pin on his suit jacket. He told several thousand people at the Charleston Civic Center that patriotism means more than saluting flags and holding parades.
Go Hillary! WHOO HOO! All the way to Denver!
Wow, my math must really suck.
70 + 47 + 117?
Is this some kind of really new math I'm unaware of?
90% of Americans like hamburgers.
70% like hotdogs.
It doesn’t mean 160%, some like both.
Nothing new, just the old fashion concept of two propositions not being mutually exclusive.
An [unreasonable] individual might believe that both Clinton and Obama share his values. The question wasn't "who more nearly shares your own values".
I gave up on that new math crap ages ago!
And why is West Virginia important? Expectations are what is important in these primary elections. The talking heads who have been telling us this race is virtually over had already taken into account that Hillary would win big in West Virginia.
And that isn't the only place. Wright is a smug, arrogant, insulting, elitist city boy living in a $1.6 million house. Gosh, what's not to like? The only difference between him and Obama is that he's overtly racist as well. With Obama it's hidden but it's still there, revealing itself now and then in phrases such as "typical white person." That doesn't make it any better, only quieter.
Black Obama trouncing Hillary in black Mississippi by 61 to 37 means "voters are responding to change".
Ya'll got that?
I have one even better! I knew people here in WV (Democrats) who were not going to vote for him before the “typical white person” line came out. In fact their exact words were: “I will not vote for a n*****.” They wanted John Edwards. I am watching his votes tonight.....he is actually getting some votes!!!
MAKE YOUR VOTE, COUNTRY FOLK
Tune: "Take Me Home, Country Roads" Original
By Winn Denver
Almost landslide, West Virginia
Numbers mountin', headin' on to Denver
Folks are white here, whiter than the sheets
That the early Byrd wore, blowin' in the breeze
Country folk, make your vote
For the race you belong
Mrs. Clinton, not Obama
Make your vote, country folk
All my prim'ries dare not end here
My election's set for this November
Dark and dusky stranger on the rise
Mustn't let him beat me, take away my prize
Country folk, make your vote
For the race you belong
Mrs. Clinton, not Obama
Make your vote, country folk
I hear your voice, in the evenin' hours you cheer me
This victory assures me that I'm queen for a day
And standin' on the stage
I get a feeling that this Wheeling's all the U.S.A.
U.S.A.
Country folk, make your vote
For the race you belong
Mrs. Clinton, not Obama
Make your vote, country folk . . .
Okay, wasn't it only people voting?
100 people = 100%
Can I get 160% interest on my checking?
Still confused.
By the way....I voted for a Democrat too! Yes....Sorry to say Fred Thompson’s name was not on the ballot (everyone else was!) so I voted for McCain today!
>> Is this some kind of really new math I’m unaware of?<<
Yes, it’s called “logic.” Unless A is mutually exclusive of B, P(A^B) =/= P(A) + P(B).
Some Democrats apparently believe Clinton and Obama BOTH share their values.
OK, you’re having a senior moment.
Suppose there WERE only 100 people surveyed. IF 70 people thought Obama shared their own values, and 47 people thought Clinton shared their own values, then at least 17 people thought they both shared their own values. Of the 70 people who thought Obama shared their values, for instance, nothing says that any of those 70 people don’t also believe Clinton shared their values.
Hey, I'm way too young for that.
I don't agree with the way they calculate this stuff.
100 voters, 60% think Hillery suck, 40% Obama.
That's pretty easy to calculate right?
Look at that dreamy look in Bill’s eyes. If I knew how to add pictures I’d caption it.
(Music swells) “I’m dreaming of those young interns, Just like the ones I used to know.”
57 stars, that works out if that's the math comes out like this:
Nancy Pelosi 30 face lifts, 20 botox injections, Henry Reid, 4 lobotomies and Ted Kennedy 3 liver transplants.
“HELP!”
Don’t blame me. I voted for Ron Paul!
I do. And where are you from - yankee?
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