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NRL News
McCain
Awaits Outcome of Obama/Clinton Battle As NRL News goes to press, pro-abortion Senator Hillary Clinton has given no public signal she intends to do anything other than continue to battle pro-abortion Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, if need be right up to the party’s August convention in Denver. The winner, whenever it is decided, will face presumptive pro-life Re-publican presidential nominee John McCain (Az.). On May 6, Clinton (NY) narrowly prevailed in Indiana by a margin of 2% while Obama (Il.) carried North Carolina with a hefty 14% advantage. Although Obama added to his advantage both among pledged delegates and popular votes cast, Clinton vowed to press on. The following day, speaking in West Virginia, Clinton talked of “a dynamic electoral environment,” adding, “What matters is what strength you have going into the general election.” She continued, “If we had the rules the Republicans had, I’d be the nominee. We have a much more complicated process. We’re in the middle of it, toward the end of it.” Offering support for the idea that Obama may have been weakened by a series of recent controversies which have dogged his campaign was a report from Fox News’s Major Garrett. Garrett noted that partly because of its huge money advantage, the Obama campaign was able to aggressively court people to vote prior to election day—and before they could have been influenced by Obama’s woes. Among those early voters, Garrett wrote, Obama “crushed” Clinton. At this story is being written, Obama is within 200 of the total of 2,025 pledged delegates needed to secure the nomination. But with only six primaries left, because the race is so close and because Democrats do not operate under the “winner take all” principle, both Obama and Clinton will need the votes of superdelegates (largely elected officials and party leaders). Clinton’s three-part strategy for winning includes doing well in the remaining primaries; having the Florida and Michigan delegations seated at the convention in a way that is advantageous to her; and convincing so-called “superdelegates” to support her, or at least hold off committing to Obama. |