WASHINGTON, 14 February 2008 — Barack Obama yesterday pinned partial blame for an economic malaise stalking America on stalling rival Hillary Clinton, a day after trouncing her in the latest wave of White House nominating contests.
The Illinois senator was riding high after a string of wins gave him a clear edge in the Democratic race, leaving Hillary desperately seeking victories in Texas and Ohio which vote on March 4 to keep her presidential hopes alive.
He coasted to crushing victories in Virginia, Maryland and the US capital on Tuesday, lifting his consecutive win streak since last week’s neck-and-neck Super Tuesday showdown to eight and cutting into her core constituencies.
Obama, seeking to further dent Hillary’s hold over the working class after carving into that support block on Tuesday, also included possible Republican general election rival John McCain in his critique of a “failure” of leadership in Washington.
“We are not standing on the brink of recession due to forces beyond our control,” said Obama in a speech at a General Motors Assembly plant in Wisconsin, one of the US rust-belt states feeling growing economic pain.
“It was a failure of leadership and imagination in Washington — the culmination of decades of decisions that were made or put off without regard to the realities of a global economy and the growing inequality it produced.” The Illinois senator complained that trade deals in North America and with China, pursued by the Clinton administration in the 1990s, shielded US corporations, and not American workers.
He argued that war in Iraq, which Hillary and McCain voted for, cost billions of dollars that could be used to rebuild “crumbling schools and bridges, roads and buildings” in health care or for college education.
And he hammered President George W. Bush for his huge tax cuts which he said mortgaged the future of American children saddling them with a “mountain of debt.” Presumptive Republican nominee McCain landed his own triple primary triumph on Tuesday, but a tougher-than-expected showing from rival Mike Huckabee in Virginia reflected his struggle to close the deal with conservatives.
As Hillary’s team suffered another night of losses, her deputy campaign manager Mike Henry reportedly resigned, two days after the former first lady decided to replace her campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle.
A defiant Hillary Tuesday showed no sign of giving up the fight.
“We’re going to sweep across Texas in the next three weeks, bringing our message about what we need in America, the kind of president that will be required on Day One to be commander in chief, to turn the economy around,” she said after flying west even before Washington area voting had closed.
“I’m tested. I’m ready. Let’s make it happen!” she told a rowdy rally in El Paso in a veiled reference to Obama’s perceived inexperience.
McCain, 71, also seemed to preview a contest with Obama, striking the charismatic Democrat’s signature theme of “hope.” “Hope, my friends, is a powerful thing. I can attest to that better than many, for I have seen men’s hopes tested in hard and cruel ways that few will ever experience,” said the former Vietnam war prisoner.
“I do not seek the presidency on the presumption that I am blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save my country in its hour of need.
“I seek the presidency with the humility of a man who cannot forget that my country saved me.” With most of the vote counted, Obama beat Clinton 64 percent to 36 percent in Virginia, 75 percent to 24 percent in Washington, and 59 percent to 34 percent in Maryland.
In a rolling count of nominating delegates by RealClearPolitics.com, Obama led with 1,260 to 1,221. A total of 2,025 delegates is needed for the nomination.
McCain led Republicans with 804 delegates to Huckabee’s 240. Republicans need 1,191 for the nomination.
In Maryland, Obama won among men and among voters of every age group and income level, expanding his political base and auguring well for key states to come.
Exit polls in Virginia showed Obama triumphing in the former first lady’s normal bastion of women by 58 percent to 42 percent, and splitting another of her key power bases, white voters.
He won 90 percent of black voters and extended his hold on younger voters, many of whom are being turned on to politics for the first time by his soaring rhetoric and message of hope.
