US Features
Obama, Clinton voters more entrenched as race drags on
Apr 23, 2008, 12:14 GMT
U.S. Democratic Senator and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton of New York is cheered on by supporters as she celebrates her victory in the Pennsylvania primary election during a rally at the Park Hyatt hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA on 22 April 2008. EPA/MATTHEW CAVANAUGH
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - Supporters of Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have always been adamant about their chosen candidates, but as the battle for the party's nomination drags on they are digging even deeper into their trenches.
Clinton won a key victory in the eastern state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday, prolonging the state-by-state nominating process that has narrowed the contest to two candidates locked in a a near dead heat.
Ahead of Pennsylvania, Obama had a small but significant lead in the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination at the party convention in August, but neither candidate has been able to come close to the 2,024 delegates needed.
Early in the campaign, voters preferred one candidate over the other, but frequently said they would be happy to have either Democrat represent them in November. But months later, voters seem less likely to yield their candidate's ground.
At an Obama rally in February, Bruce Danver, a 48-year-old engineer, said he would support either Democrat in the general election but sounded an ominous warning.
'This could be protracted. It could get ugly,' he said.
His words seem prophetic after a series of barbed ad campaigns and controversies.
'We would show a little bit of weakness towards the Republicans,' Franklin Sejas, a 34-year-old Clinton supporter, said this winter of the consequences of a drawn-out race. 'You have to be a decider. You've got to know what you want.'
But those who have not grown weary of the wall-to-wall media coverage are no closer to moving the party toward a definitive decision and instead are more entrenched than ever behind their favourite candidate.
'I want Hillary to win. I may end up voting for Obama in the general election, but I don't think he tells a lot about what he's going to do,' Carol Komesz, 60, said at a Clinton rally in Harrisburg ahead of Pennsylvania's vote.
Interviews conducted by CNN of voters leaving the polls showed nearly one-third of voters in Pennsylvania would be satisfied only if Clinton wins the nomination, 23 per cent would only be satisfied with Obama as the nominee, and only 40 per cent would be happy with either candidate.
In contrast, in Virginia's February vote, just 15 per cent said they would be satisfied only if Clinton wins the nomination, 34 per cent said they would be happy only with an Obama win and 48 per cent would take either outcome.
In the heat of the ongoing battle, voters seem less willing to yield ground to the other candidate.
Some staunch Clinton supporters, like Dana Thompson, 39, of York, Pennsylvania, think the senator from neighbouring New York should stay in the race no matter what.
'It makes me crazy when people say she needs to drop out. She's not that far behind - they're neck and neck,' she said before a Clinton rally on Monday. 'Why should she step aside? Women have historically stepped aside.'
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in US
- 1. Mitt Romney Addresses Tea Party Summit Pictures
- 2. Seven injured as US Navy plane crashes into apartments
- 3. At least three injured in US Navy plane crash
- 4. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, others to face death penalty trial
- 5. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, four others to face death penalty trial
Older Talkback
page: 1
The purpose of the primaries is to weed out the weak and unworthy. This will be telling...
Did you hear Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC today? She is Alan Greenspan's wife, the Fed Chair who helped get us into our current economic crisis and reigned over the 8 worst years our economy has ever seen.
Andrea was all upset that Hillary was claiming to have more popular votes than any other primary candidate in history and Andrea had a panel on to discuss 'Hillary's math'.
She asked them 'how do you like Hillary's math?'
Too bad none of them were frank enough to say 'We like Hillary's math a lot more that we liked your husband's, Andrea.'
That would be true, except for the glaring fact that, under Greenspan, we had:
Record tax revenue
Record employment
Record household wealth
Record exports
Low inflation
This being the case, I think we';ve proven that you suffer from being just-a-little-more-than-full of crap!
Judah Ben-Hur from the American Republic for Pressident, 2012!
Sitting on the fence ???
Check out the Dead and the Clinton's on the net, might help you change your mind. Also How The Clinton's Got Rich, taking your job over the border !! Wanting another >>>>>>>>>>> Clinton's Draft Plans for your children to be drafted into the Military after the elections. Gee with all the staged debates why has no-one mention the 'D' word for DRAFT........
And so it is..............
Tell me SP4 what happened with the record tax income you claim for BUs.How did it turn into a record budget deficit ?Did that somehow escap your attention .What is happening to the school funding,health care for the poor ?Why take an abstract figure like tax income and fail to explain where that money went .As I read the Us media I find only funding problems for those department ?Will you tell us teachers are parasytes leeching from the state?Are the unemployed perhaps parasytes,the sick pople ?
Or did the money go somewhere else ?Into the coffers of the militry industrial complex ,perhaps ?Which one is it ?
I'm not sure where you live, Tonny, but we still have record tax income. Outside of the home mortgage mess, which Bush had nothing to do with, we STILL are producing. Fact is, the weak dollar is utterly propelling exports and even GM announced last month they intend to produce more cars domestically, due to the dollars value.
In fact, technically, we have yet to slip into a recession, with a flat growth number STILL present. This is likely to change, but, as of now, that was the last set of numbers results!
Congress, Tonny, not the President, appropriates money. You'd know this if you lived here.
Take, for instance, the 286 billion, unfunded, democratic farm bill, the first bill passed by the dem libnazi congress, after preaching 'paygo' for...how many years?...which actually PAYS farmers to grow crops for fuel, inflating the corn crop and cascading cereal pricing upwards worldwide.
How's THAT working so far? We need to get the government out of the regulation business: It's killing to many goddamn people!
As for the parasites, most of them are the one's who passed the bills, Tonny.
If you like socialism, stay where you are.
My only bitch with Bush is that he signed these stinkers in order to fund the war, and, in a fit of liberalism, signed on to steel tariffs, upping the price of steel over 100% in the last 3 years.
Then again, he was never really a conservative...
page: 1
'' ....voters more entrenched as race drags on''Apr 23rd, 2008 - 17:44:58
Must be a drag race...hhmmmmmoohhbewahahahahahahahahaha..made a funny...get it?
Anyhow, why in the world would anybody...ANYBODY vote for Obama? The man has zilch, nada, bush, zero to offer. He's just giving his audience a good song and dance. What a schmoozer he is.
Report this comment