Clinton Defeats Obama in Ohio Primary

Clinton has taken Ohio with Texas still too close to call and, predictably, she is claiming that she is The Comeback Kid.

“No candidate in recent history — Democratic or Republican — has won the White House without winning the Ohio primary,” Mrs. Clinton, of New York, said at a rally in Columbus, Ohio. “We all know that if we want a Democratic president. We need a Democratic nominee who can win Democratic states just like Ohio.”

The New York Times have pointed out her potential difficulty here:

Mrs. Clinton will continue to find herself in a difficult position mathematically. Given the way the Democratic party allocates delegates, it remained possible that Mrs. Clinton could win the popular vote in as many as three states on Tuesday but end up winning fewer delegates than Mr. Obama.

This race remains about delegates and Clinton started the night about 110 delegates behind Barack Obama. The whole point of last night was that Clinton needed to win - and win big - in both Ohio and Texas to have any chance of catching him. And the very fact that Texas is too close to call means that the number of delegates she will gain from this will be negligible.

Mr. Obama came out shortly before midnight to speak to a crowd in San Antonio, and laid out the argument his campaign would make in the days ahead.

“No matter what happens tonight,” he said, “we have nearly the same delegate lead that we did this morning, and we are on our way to winning this nomination.”

If Hillary doesn't win both Texas and Ohio by a large enough margin to eat into Obama's lead in the delegate count then her victories will be essentially meaningless.

But she will now be able to spin this all the way to Pennsylvania.

On the Republican side of the aisle, John McCain has now been confirmed as the their nominee, stating:

“I will leave it to my opponent to propose returning to the failed, big-government mandates of the ’60s and ’70s to address problems such as the lack of health care insurance for some Americans,” he said. “I will campaign to make health care more accessible to more Americans with reforms that will bring down costs in the health care industry without ruining the quality of the world’s best medical care.”

What delusion is McCain suffering from if he thinks the United States have "the world's best medical care"? That is simply dishonest nonsense:

The U.S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance, the report finds. The United Kingdom, which spends just six percent of GDP on health services, ranks 18 th . Several small countries – San Marino, Andorra, Malta and Singapore are rated close behind second- placed Italy.

It is typical of Republicans like McCain to make the kind of statement that he made. Perhaps, in his position, the medical treatment he receives is first class, however that is not the position that most Americans find themselves in.

McCain's misguided belief that the US have "the world’s best medical care” emphasises why the US needs a Democrat in the White House. For the last seven years the rich and the well connected have had their President, it's time that the rest of America had a President that cared for them.

UPDATE:

The saddest thing about yesterday's result is that the press will encourage Hillary to continue in a battle that she is almost certain to lose. For Hillary the numbers still don't add up.

Here is Obama's speech in San Antonio:



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Tags: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, US Presidential race, US election 2008, Democratic nomination