Barack Obama Wins Wisconsin Primary with Decisive 17-Point Margin Over Hillary Clinton

Date: Tuesday, February 19, 2008
By: Associated Press and BlackAmericaWeb.com

Obama took his 10th straight Democratic win since Feb. 5 by rolling up solid majorities among whites, males and young voters -- and by splitting the votes of women and the non-college-educated with Clinton, who looks to those last two groups as her base.

Voters were largely unmoved by Clinton's latest efforts to paint herself as the aggrieved worker's friend and to attack Obama for echoing someone else's speech lines. With 99 percent of precincts reporting in Wisconsin, Obama had 58 percent of the vote to Clinton's 41 percent. With just over half of Hawaii's precincts reporting at press time, Obama had 75 percent to Clinton's 23 percent.

"The results of the Democratic and Republican primaries in Wisconsin this evening may well be indicative of the two candidates who will be battling for the presidency in the November general election -- senators Barack Obama and John McCain," Michelle Bernard, a black conservative and president of the Washington, D.C.-based Independent Women’s Voice, told BlackAmericaWeb.com Tuesday night.

"Wisconsin's Democratic primary was a test of whether Sen. Obama or Clinton would galvanize working class voters in Wisconsin, many of whom are white men whose voices have largely been ignored by the media this election cycle," Bernard said.

"As we saw in the Potomac primaries last week, this demographic has started to lean towards Sen. Obama and may well do so in Ohio and Texas on March 4th," she said. "Something monumental is happening in the Democratic party. Sen. Obama is winning the support of every demographic he faces in the Democratic race for president. Sen. Clinton is not out, but she is down, and the momentum that Sen. Obama has gained in the last week alone may prove insurmountable."

Clinton made no mention of her crushing defeat in Wisconsin, and showed no sign of surrender in an appearance in Youngstown, Ohio and pressing her case that Obama offers little more than words.

"Both Sen. Obama and I would make history," the former first lady said. "But only one of us is ready on day one to be commander in chief, ready to manage our economy, and ready to defeat the Republicans. Only one of us has spent 35 years being a doer, a fighter and a champion for those who need a voice."

The Clinton campaign stepped up its attacks on Obama days before the Wisconsin primary, saying Obama plagiarized parts of a speech from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

It appeared, however, that Wisconsin voters rejected Clinton’s strategy of what some are calling "going negative" and instead, showed support for Obama’s message of hope and change.

"Her campaign continues becoming desperate, whether she's talking about plagiarism, delegate-stealing or the earlier accusation that Obama's been planning a run for President since kindergarten," Peter C. Groff, a Colorado state senator, publisher of Blackpolicy.org and executive director of the Center for African-American Policy at the University of Denver, told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

"It becomes obvious and stale -- the inability to recalibrate her rhetoric in such a way that doesn't scold the American public or smack of elitism," Groff said. "She's supposed to be the 'blue collar candidate' but she dismisses the role of hope and inspiration as tools in giving people a reason to wake up and go to work each day."

"Ten and 0; on to Texas and Ohio they go," Craig Kirby, a Democratic strategist, told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "It seems Barack has discovered and influenced many people who are dedicated to seeing the change he is talking about, and, more importantly, they don't mind doing the hard work of going out and building coalitions."

The economy and trade were key issues in the race, and seven in 10 Wisconsin voters said international trade has resulted in lost jobs in Wisconsin. Fewer than one in five said trade has created more jobs than it has lost.

"The fact that he's won 10 wins in a row is interesting," Groff said. "For Sen. Clinton, she's in danger of being in a statistical abyss, because at this point -- when you take out super delegates -- she's down by a considerable spread unless she starts winning by the same margins he's winning."

"Now, she has a perception problem, in terms of where she stands before Texas, with the two candidates about even," he added. "The problem with the Clinton campaign is that they first talked about building a firewall in Texas. Now, as the polls are closing in Texas, they're moving on to Ohio in what could be construed as a desperate move, since they're moving from state to state in hopes of creating a winnable last stand."

Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain won the Republican primary, with ease, dispatching former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and edging closer to the 1,191 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination at the party convention in St. Paul, Minn. next summer.

"For Republicans, if there was ever any doubt, it should now be clear to all that Sen. McCain will be the 2008 Republican nominee," Bernard said. "The question for Sen. McCain now is how to appeal to the conservative base of the party which still shuns him without alienating independents, moderates, and Reagan Democrats who support him."

Groff said McCain is showing that he's got the nomination locked despite earlier fears of a "conservative insurrection."

"Conservatives, at this point, are simply eager to win any GOP candidate that has the best chance of capturing the White House ... in their eyes. Therefore, Huckabee is becoming the incredibly disappearing candidate," he said. 

In a scarcely veiled attack on Obama, the Republican nominee-in-waiting said, "I will fight every moment of every day in this campaign to make sure that Americans are not deceived by an eloquent but empty call for change."

Independents cast about one-quarter of the ballots in the race between Obama and Clinton, and roughly 15 percent of the electorate were first-time voters, the survey said. Obama has run strongly among independents in earlier primaries and among younger voters, citing their support as evidence that he would make a stronger general election candidate in the fall.

Wisconsin offered 74 national convention delegates. There were 20 delegates at stake in Hawaii, where Obama spent much of his youth.

Washington Democrats voted in a primary, too, but their delegates were picked earlier in the month in cacuses won by Obama.

The Illinois senator's Wisconsin victory left him with 1,303 delegates in The Associated Press' count, compared with 1,233 for Clinton, a margin that masks his 145-delegate lead among those picked in primaries or caucuses. It takes 2,025 to win the nomination at the party's national convention in Denver.

Obama began the evening with eight straight primary and caucus victories, a remarkable run that has propelled him past Clinton in the overall delegate race and enabled him to chip away at her advantage among elected officials within the party who will have convention votes as superdelegates.

The Democrats' focus on trade was certain to intensify, with primaries in Ohio in two weeks and in Pennsylvania on April 22.

Obama's campaign has already distributed mass mailings critical of Clinton on the issue in Ohio. "Bad trade deals like NAFTA hit Ohio harder than most states. Only Barack Obama consistently opposed NAFTA," it said.

Obama was in Texas, which has primaries and caucuses on March 4, and Clinton was in Ohio as the votes were counted in Wisconsin.

"The fact of the matter is that she [Clinton] put in a ton of money in Wisconsin and a lot of time -- as did Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton," said Groff. "Accumulated, they spent more time there. Wisconsin is where she was somewhat expected to stop him, an economically challenged area with a demographic of blue collar workers that supposedly favors her in the polls. She planned to draw a line in the sand in Wisconsin, to stop his tide, but again he is winning all over the state by showing a breadth of support that is unmatched."

Groff added: "If she was playing basketball, she would have to call a time out right about now because the game is getting away from her."