Surely now, Barack Obama has sewn up the Democratic Party nomination. After the Democratic National Committee’s rules and bylaws committee reinstated all of Florida and Michigan’s delegates to its party convention, the committee’s decision that each gets a half vote, the result is that while Hillary Clinton obtains a substantial number of additional pledged delegates, the move will leave front-runner Obama’s lead over Clinton intact.
The Florida and Michigan resolution increases the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination to 2,118, leaving Obama just 66 delegates away from the majority needed to secure the nomination. As such, Obama will likely hit the magic number of delegate counts after the final primaries are held tomorrow night. Clinton is still hoping to persuade undecided superdelegates that she should be the party’s nominee. But Clinton has to win the popular vote to have a chance of winning the nomination. If she does so, she has a better chance of persuading the majority of the undecided superdelegates to back her. But the mathematics, which for many weeks did not add up in her favor, are now even less congenial. So barring a Clinton appeal following the rules and bylaws committee’s decision, Obama is the Democratic candidate — though one who will have a long way to go to bring the party together after a long and divisive primary. Then he must deal with Republican John McCain, waiting to pounce after effectively wrapping up the Republican nomination in March. Obama and McCain have increasingly targeted each other as a November general election showdown between the two men seems inevitable. When matched against McCain, Obama runs about even among all voters. He has had a narrow advantage over McCain most of the year and perhaps for that reason McCain, who has built much of his candidacy on his foreign policy and national security experience, has repeatedly criticized Obama for saying he would meet with leaders of what the US considers rogue states.
Obama’s victory in Oregon’s primary on May 20 was a significant milestone that was the cue for his claiming victory, and that day he indeed was within reach of winning the nomination. But Clinton, who won a victory by a large margin in Kentucky that same day, vowed to fight on. In fact, Clinton’s campaign staff once talked about fighting all the way to the convention in August. That does not seem likely to happen now. The winds in Clinton’s sails have been substantially diminished and the Florida and Michigan decision has effectively knocked the substance out of her drive to the White House. In a few days, give or take a day, it should be all over.
The prospective end of Hillary Clinton’s thwarts Clinton’s attempt to become the first US woman president. However, Obama’s embodies what could be the first Afro-American in the White House, thus making an equally significant first for the US and its presidency.
