Obama wins Mississippi: by 24% points

[General Duke]

Obama wins Mississippi

 

Barack Obama shored up his delegate lead with a commanding victory in the Mississippi primary Tuesday night, as Hillary Clinton renewed her call for Florida and Michigan delegates to be given a say at the Democratic convention this summer.

 

Obama's victory by 24 percentage points in Mississippi earned him 19 delegates compared to 14 for Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, allowing him again to claim frontrunner status ahead of the final 10 primaries.

 

The win helped neutralise recent gains by Clinton in the big states of Texas and Ohio that have kept her in the Democratic race.

 

Obama's victory boosts the importance of the Florida and Michigan delegates for Clinton, and she wasted little time in calling for their inclusion at the August convention.

 

"The nearly two and a half million Americans in those two states who participated in the primary elections are in danger of being excluded from our democratic process and I think that's wrong," she said at a campaign event this morning. "The results of those primaries were fair and they should be honoured."

 

The two states were punished by the Democratic National Committee for violating party rules and holding elections too soon, and as it stands, their delegates won't be allowed to cast at vote at the convention.

 

Clinton won January elections in both states and would gain in the delegate count were the national party to honour the results. She was the only major candidate on the ballot in Michigan and neither candidate campaigned actively in Florida.

 

The Clinton camp also indicated today it was also open to a new vote in Michigan and Florida.

 

"We think there are two options: Either honour the results or hold new primary elections," campaign manager Maggie Williams wrote in a letter to the Obama campaign.

 

"To that end, we are in active consultation with all of our supporters in Florida, including members of Congress. In Michigan, we are in active consultation with the committee appointed by Governor Granholm."

 

One possibility is a vote by mail, but Obama's campaign has expressed concerns about the idea's feasibility, and yesterday Florida's congressional delegation said it was opposed to the idea.

 

But Florida senator Bill Nelson, a Clinton supporter, has been promoting it, and the Florida Democratic Party could finalise details of a plan as soon as today.

 

Obama now has 1,598 delegates, compared to 1,487 for Clinton, according to an Associated Press tally. It takes 2,025 to clinch the nomination. Neither candidate is likely to achieve that number without the votes of the superdelegates, party insiders and elected officials who will vote at the nominating convention independent of the results of state contests.

 

The result in Mississippi exposed racial divisions in the Democratic race, only hours after controversial comments about race from a key Clinton supporter, Geraldine Ferraro.