He has now won 8 states in a row, with at least one win in every major region of the country.
He's won 23 of 34 state contests.
He's won 13 of 24 state primaries, and 9 of 10 state caucuses. And yes, that's the count after putting FL (where no one campaigned), MI (where Obama wasn't even on the ballot), NV (where Obama won more delegates but lost the popular vote), and NM (where they essentially tied in popular votes but Obama lost in pledged delegates) into Clinton's column.
He has a big lead in pledged delegates.
He has an overall lead in total delegates. Don't count Florida and Michigan? He's ahead. Count Florida and Michigan? He's still ahead,
He has a lead in the popular vote. Don't count FL and MI? His lead is in the triple digits. Count FL and MI? His lead is at worst reduced to around 50 delegates.
But as important as all of those stats are, they are just the beginning. Last night, Obama broadened his coalition, and he did it in some very important ways.
First off, his vote total last night exceeded the vote total of all of the Republican candidates combined.
In Virginia:
He beat Clinton 68% to 30% among men
He beat Clinton 60% to 39% among women.
He beat her 52% to 46% among catholics, and 67% to 33% among protestants.
He beat her 64% to 35% among those with a college education, and 63% to 36% among those without one.
He won every single income group there is, and in no group was his margin less than 20 points.
He won big with liberals and moderates, but even bigger with self-described independents.
He won whites. He won with blacks. He even won with independents.
He won with the young. He won with the middle aged. And he won with seniors and retirees.
He won in both union and non-union households alike.
He was considered by a majority of voters to be best qualified to be Commander in Chief.
In fact, he won virtually every category of voter, with one notable exception: white women. And there Clinton's advantage shrunk to just 53% to 47%. That's it. That's all she's got.
And in Maryland? In MD things only got worse for Clinton. But I'll let you sort through the data for yourself.
So here's the takeaway, courtesy of NBC's Chuck Todd:
This Democratic race has two finish lines. One could be as early as March 4. An Obama victory in either of the big states would probably put the pledged delegate count out of reach for Clinton and would allow Obama to disprove the idea that he either can't win Latinos or blue-collar white Democrats.
If he can take either Ohio or Texas, its over.
Subscribe to this blog's feed
