Historically, I understand that no Democrat has ever been elected president who hasn't won their party's primary in WV, since 1916. Streaks are made to be broke, but it makes sense that a state holding it's primary so late in the game would go to the eventual nominee.

Bad omen for Obama. 

Yes!

It looks like we can watch the Demos hang from the end of a rope that much longer! 

You may be right, Ted.  My understanding is that what they were saying is that no Democrat has won the White House in a long time without winning West Virginia in the general election.  That still is a fair point, since the results show Obama is not very likely to win WV in the fall.

The exit pollint data is somewhat troubling for the campaign in the general election.  However, this is not going to effect the outcome of the Democratic nomination.

Now if Hillary had upset Obama last week in NC, it would have been entirely different - the Democratic party would today be shaken to its core; a few good, hard blows struck in the right places might have been able to split it wide open.  (Ah, what might have been :-)

As it is, IMO Obama will be the nominee, Hillary will at least unofficially concede in the June 4-13 time frame, and the party will united behind Obama who will go into the fall the favorite - but weakened enough that it will still be a horse race.

MWL

10 PM eastern, with over 40% of the vote in - Clinton may just win it better than 2-1 (over 2/3 of the vote).  Now that's what I'd call a landslide.

MWL

It's pretty obvious Obama can't win WV in the fall, Clinton possibly could, we'll never know.

10 PM eastern, with over 40% of the vote in - Clinton may just win it better than 2-1 (over 2/3 of the vote).  Now that's what I'd call a landslide.

MWL

[/quote]

Those darn Scotch-Irish keep clinging to guns and prayer. Most figure you don't have a prayer if you don't have a gun. 

Clinton 65% to 28% Obama, Edwards with 7%.

Wow. 

Edwards with 7%?  Now THAT is interesting.

Ted, how many evenings in the past few weeks do you suspect Edwards has chugged down a few shots in that mansion of his and kicked himself for having dropped out so soon?  He probably still would not have won, but he could have been THE power broker and written his own ticket.

MWL

Edwards with 7%?  Now THAT is interesting.

Ted, how many evenings in the past few weeks do you suspect Edwards has chugged down a few shots in that mansion of his and kicked himself for having dropped out so soon?  He probably still would not have won, but he could have been THE power broker and written his own ticket.

MWL

[/quote]

Might have been interesting, especially in NC. 

MWL:

Edwards simply didn't have the campaign funds to continue the fight. He had to drop out or go bankrupt.

I agree this is an interesting win for Hillary. I'm wondering now: where did Obama pick up all his delegates? Was it California? He hasn't had a really big win in some time.

Sam

Final count:

Clinton 67%

Obama 26%

Edwards 7%

Clinton picks up 20 delegates to Obama's 8

Too little, too late. 

As it is, IMO Obama will be the nominee, Hillary will at least unofficially concede in the June 4-13 time frame, and the party will united behind Obama who will go into the fall the favorite - but weakened enough that it will still be a horse race.

[/quote]

MWL, you're 'poor mouthing' again. There's no way that BO will go into the fall as the favorite. He may be in national polls, but they're worthless. McCain leads now based on state polls and the corresponding electoral college delegates and he will keep that lead into the fall.

ML

Final count:

Clinton 67%

Obama 26%

Edwards 7%

Clinton picks up 20 delegates to Obama's 8

Too little, too late. 

[/quote]

Not enough of the 90+% voting block to give Obama the win.

ML

[quote user="sensei"][/quote]

Do we know on what portion of the anatomy...

oh, never mind.

:)

Hetty 

Why is WV so important for Dems? Demographics, primarily. It's the meeting point of North and South, if you can't take this borderline state, you can't make any inroads into the South.

So I looked it up, since 1864 (first electoral college for WV) only one time has a Dem won the White House without taking WV, 1916.

www.270towin.com

Hard to see how Obama can win any states in the South, and without the bordering states, MO, WV, MD, and KY, he's going to lose big time. MD seems to be his only shot at keeping this thing from being a blow out. 

MWL, you're 'poor mouthing' again. There's no way that BO will go into the fall as the favorite. He may be in national polls, but they're worthless. McCain leads now based on state polls and the corresponding electoral college delegates and he will keep that lead into the fall.

ML, I will at least concede your point here.  At the same time, you might forgive me considering we are in an election year that, you must agree, has been and continues to look grim for conservatives and Republicans.  I think I am entitled to let an occasional bit of pessimism slip out every now and then.

I will admit that according to some studies (Karl Rove's have been particularly pursuasive), John McCain currently has a likely lead in electoral (as opposed to popular) votes.  That may or may not hold through the fall, and there are still enough states in the "toss up" column that things could go either way.  (In addition, I think even you might agree with me that among the last things this country needs right now is yet ANOTHER presidential election where the popular vote and electoral vote are not clearly both on the same side.)

McCain may yet pull out a win this fall - I certainly hope so.  The alternative would be an Obama presidency and a strong Democratic control of both houses of Congress.  The last time that something that extreme happened was with Lyndon Johnson's and the Democrat's landslide victory in 1964, and we all know how that turned out.  We than had 16 years of virtually all Democratic-controlled congresses, and 14 of 16 years with big-government Presidents.  By 1980, 16 years later, serious observers of the international scene were wondering whether the United States would even survive.  They were right to do so IMO.  I was there, and I remember.

Hopefully we will not have to go through that again, ML.  For one thing, I do not relish spending my retirement years in a declining nation.  And we have no guarantee that the United States would produce another Ronald Reagan to salvage and rescue our country this time around.

MWL

She's certainly a pain in Obama's buttock. He can't handle her, yet somehow is going to handle the GOP.

I wonder how.