Obama Wins Oregon and Clinton Gets Kentucky, Exit Polls Show Weakness
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 20, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Barack Obama captured a win in Oregon on Tuesday night and Hillary Clinton won Kentucky’s Democratic primary, but exit polling data shows Obama would have a tough time in November against John McCain. In Kentucky, large numbers of Democrats said they would back McCain over Obama.
Clinton easily won the Kentucky Democratic primary with 65 percent of the vote compared to just 30 percent for her pro-abortion rival Obama.
Meanwhile, Obama had a strong showing in Oregon with 58 percent of the vote over Clinton, who took home 42 percent.
Obama passed what his campaign called a milestone by accumulating a majority of the number of pledged delegates that he will have no matter the results of the final primary contests.
Because superdelegates are also involved, Obama does not have a majority of the total delegates needed to become the nominee and may not achieve that with the final contests.
After tonight’s votes, Democrats now head to Puerto Rico on June 1, and then to South Dakota and Montana on June 3. Together, the states have 86 delegates, not enough for Clinton to catch Obama.
Unless Clinton can get the Michigan and Florida delegates seated, where she has a strong advantage, or can convince dozens of superdelegates to abandon Obama and return to her camp, she will not likely become the nominee.
Though Obama has the inside track to become the nominee, exit polling data in Kentucky showed two-thirds of Clinton’s supporters said they would vote for McCain or not vote at all in November if Obama is the nominee. Some 41 percent indicated they would back McCain and 23 percent said they wouldn’t vote while only 33 percent of Clinton supporters indicated they would back Obama.
The figures are similar to West Virginia, where a recent exit poll showed only 36 percent of Clinton voters said they would support him in November.
Even in Oregon, 13 percent of Democratic voters say they will support McCain or not vote at all before they would cast their ballot for Obama in November.
The numbers do not represent Republican crossover voters sabotaging the Democratic results because just six percent of the voters in the Kentucky Democratic primary, and three percent in Oregon, say they primarily vote for Republicans. With both the Oregon and Kentucky primaries closed to registered Republicans, the exit poling proves Obama will have a tough time against McCain.
That means Obama will have a very difficult time getting the support of Democrats who are white, moderate, pro-life, blue collar, retirees, religious or live in rural areas.
