1/19/08

Obama Takes Nevada in Soap Opera Twist

Hillary Clinton wins the vote count:
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, capturing strong support from women voters and adding a fresh boost of momentum to her campaign as the Democratic presidential race heads to South Carolina, where she is engaged in a fierce battle with her rival, Senator Barack Obama.

snip

The New York senator had 51 percent of the vote to Mr. Obama’s 45 percent, with just over 90 percent of the state’s caucuses reporting. John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina, faded to a distant third place with 4 percent of the vote.
But Barack Obama wins the delegate count:

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.

A current estimate of the national convention delegate count is below, though not all precincts have fully reported.

District 1 Clinton 3, Obama 3

District 2 (Washoe) Clinton 1, Obama 2

District 2 (Rural) Clinton 0, Obama 1

District 2 (Clark) Clinton 1, Obama 1

District 3 (Clark) Clinton 2, Obama 2

At-Large Clinton 2, Obama 1

PLEO Clinton 3, Obama 3

Hillary wins the vote.
Barack wins the delegates.
Or did he really?

Obama partisans don't heart Hillary too much because of tactics, Hillary partisans don't heart Obama trying to get some Edwards love, and Edwards wins a fund raising Bomb but bombs in the Nevada vote. And I am guessing you haven't even thought about adding Super Delegates in the mix yet?

Confused? You won't be after this episode of Soap...



[update] HuffPo is reporting that AP releases that had originally given Hillary Clinton the edge in delegates have flipped the count in Barack Obama's favor in their story:
As Plouffe cast doubt on the accuracy of the caucus results, he also claimed electoral victory. Senator Obama, he argued, actually wound up winning more delegates (13) than Clinton (12).

"On one very important measure, we had a slight lead," said Plouffe. "Just as important as the number is why that is: we showed real strength statewide."

The Associated Press was reporting the numbers flipped, but an AP official on the conference call suggested that Obama's campaign could be right. [Update: The AP has changed its count to reflect a delegate win for Obama, 13-12.]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In this day of advanced technology, I feel that the electoral college is an out dated notion. A vote cast should be the vote counted.
Thanx for adding alien trucker to your blogroll.
Rocky

Connecticut Man1 said...

There might have been a time when an electoral college had its uses. Back in the horse and buggy days when there was nothing more than the pony express for long distance communication. It might have been the most secure means of ensuring your vote was voiced correctly. I don't know? I am not sure of the reasons they ever invented it? Might be worth looking t.

And thank you for adding me!