An enormous advantage Democrat Hillary Clinton has deployed in Pennsylvania is sending out three people with the last name “Clinton” to stump for her presidential aspirations. Hillary, Bill and Chelsea at different times, sometimes on the same day, have criss-crossed Pennsylvania, which draws out local TV and newspaper reporters. On the second day of chief rival Barack Obama’s state bus tour, President Clinton is in NE Pennsylvania. No doubt, in a vital region full of blue collar Dems, President Clinton’s appearance will split what coverage the news had planned for Obama, whose in western Pennsylvania.
Hillary herself is out of the state. As Obama tries to chip away at her substantial lead in the Pennsylvania polls (an average of 16 percent at last check of Real Clear Politics), Clinton appeared in North Carolina Thursday and Indiana Friday and Saturday as part of her “Solutions for the American Economy Tour.” It concludes with three days in Pennsylvania.
Let’s take a look at how the races are shaping up in the primaries immediately following ours on April 22. The North Carolina info is gleaned from www.realclearpolitics.com, and the numbers are averages of voter polls conducted in the state:
North Carolina (Votes May 6; 134 delegates at stake)
Obama: 50 percent Clinton: 37.3 percent
Difference: Obama - 12.7 percent
Indiana votes on May 6, too, and the latest poll numbers I could find came from Howard-Guage, which conducted a poll a month-and-a-half ago putting Obama at 15 points ahead. I wouldn’t count on those numbers being relevant now, except to say the Illinois senator built the kind of lead among Hoosiers he has to overcome in Pennsylvania where Senator Clinton dominates. Indiana has 72 delegates available, which means two weeks after Pennsylvania’s 157 are distributed, an even larger amount (206) is up for grabs. After May 6, one of these candidates may end up with the “majority-plus-one.” Which means either Clinton or Obama will have garnered enough pledged delegates so as not to be overtaken by the other during the remaining primaries through to the beginning of June.
The superdelegates, though, could swing the nomination to the other candidate. Now we know why Pennsylvania isn’t the sole focus on any of these candidate, and why Senator Clinton is conversing with Hoosiers and President Clinton with Pennsylvanians today.
