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Barack Obama rolls on
via The Economist: News analysis and views by (author unknown) on February 19, 2008
Ten successive victories for Barack Obama; Hillary Clinton's campaign is tottering
ANOTHER week and another painful defeat for Hillary Clinton. On Tuesday February 19th Barack Obama won two more contests for the Democratic nomination. Victories in a primary in Wisconsin and a caucus in Hawaii seal his ninth and tenth victories in a row. Hawaii is small and Mr Obama was born there, so Mrs Clinton might dismiss his runaway 75-24% victory (with 71% of the precincts having reported results). But Wisconsin hurts: it is good-sized swing state that Democrats need to hold in the autumn if they are to beat John McCain. Mr Obama won it by 17 percentage points.
Just as troubling for Mrs Clinton, Mr Obama won it on her ground. Blue-collar voters had previously gone to Mrs Clinton by sizeable margins; this time he split their vote. He also narrowly won among women, a strong block for Mrs Clinton. He won among white males clearly. And he once again piled up big victories among newly enthusiastic young voters, the better educated and higher earners. By a margin of two-to-one, voters in Wisconsin said he was more likely to beat the Republican nominee (certain to be John McCain) in November. ...
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