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McCain Wins Nomination; Clinton Gets Back Up

By Zach Kitamura

            Tuesday’s primaries in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont proved to be John McCain’s knock out blow against Mike Huckabee, a huge turnaround from the man who was considered out of the race for the nomination last year.  The Democratic race saw Hilary Clinton get control of her campaign that was in the midst of a tailspin.  While the Republican race is done, the finish line is out of sight in the Democratic race.

            Senator John McCain clinched the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday night by sweeping all four of the races contested.  Although he has been the certain nominee for about a month, Tuesday’s primaries put enough beans in McCain’s pot to make the relentless Mike Huckabee finally bow out. 

            McCain can now fully focus on the general election and will cruise into the Republican National Convention with the GOP’s full backing.  He had already shifted his campaign though, last week joining in with Senator Hilary Clinton in attacking Senator and Democratic leader Barack Obama on several issues.

            On the Democratic side, Clinton slowed down Obama by winning Rhode Island Ohio and Texas, with Obama picking up Vermont.  Obama had won the last eleven states and appeared to be on the verge of pulling away from the New York Senator.  But Hilary seems to have enough gas in the tank to keep up with him for a while longer.  Hilary had large numbers of her core groups in Ohio and Texas.  In Ohio, she carried the Caucasian vote, as well as the female and older voters.  She also has a strong Catholic backing, and Ohio has a large Catholic population.  In Texas, she carried the all-important Latino vote. 

            The victory, however, was not a huge in terms of delegates.  Despite winning three of the four states, the number of delegates she gained brought her only about 10 to 15 delegates closer to Obama’s total.  Clinton will need to win a much higher percentage of the vote to over take Obama, and time is beginning to run out. 

            Although the Democratic National Convention is more than six months away, there aren’t many more delegates up for grabs left.  The date that has the most upcoming delegates is May 6 with primaries in the states of Indiana and North Carolina.  In contrast, Tuesday saw 444 delegates distributed.  The April 22 primary in Pennsylvania will also be crucial with 188 delegates to be allocated.