Hillary Clinton May Beat Barack Obama in West Virginia, But Lose Nomination

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 13, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Hillary Clinton May Beat Barack Obama in West Virginia, But Lose Nomination

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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 13
, 2008

Charleston, WV (LifeNews.com) — Hillary Clinton appears likely to win West Virginia tonight by a wide margin, but her ability to wrest the Democratic nomination from Barack Obama is in serious doubt. Clinton’s likely win West Virginia, where she leads by as much as 30-40 percent, has prompted Obama to look to other states.

The most recent primary election poll in the eastern mountain state shows Clinton at 60 percent among Democrats there and Obama pulling in just 24 percent.

Other surveys show a similar margin as Obama has failed to develop any momentum in a state where Democrats are mostly white, more moderate than Democrats in other states, and older.

Those are groups Clinton fares better with than Obama and ones Clinton has pointed out Obama likely won’t win in November — that could cost her party the election as a result.

"I’m winning Catholic voters and Hispanic voters and blue-collar workers and seniors, the kind of people that Sen. McCain will be fighting for in the general election," Clinton said at a recent rally in the state.

"I think it’s fair to say that West Virginia is a test. It’s a test for me and it’s a test for Sen. Obama, because for too long we have let places like West Virginia slip out of the Democratic column. And you know it is a fact that no Democratic president has ever won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia," she added.

Her point is well taken as Bill Clinton went on to victory in 1992 and 1996 after winning the state while President Bush carried West Virginia twice to propel him to victories in 2000 and 2004.

While Clinton will cruise to an easy victory tonight, in the overall race for the Democratic nomination, Clinton trails Obama in the number of delegates, superdelegates, popular vote total and the number of states won.

That reality is not lost on Senator Obama, who has been campaigning in general election battleground states like Michigan and Missouri to begin taking on eventual Republican nominee John McCain.

After West Virginia, Oregon and Kentucky follow a week later.

Survey USA has been the only major polling firm conducting period polling of Kentucky Democrats and the most recent survey, conducted May 3-5, has Clinton ahead 62-28, a 34 point margin. Two April polls and a March survey show a similar margin favoring Clinton.

Meanwhile, in Oregon, a Rasmussen survey conducted last week has Obama leading Clinton 51 to 39 percent and two Survey USA polls from April have him leading by 6 and 10 percent respectively.