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Obama-Clinton Feud Escalates With Racial Remarks

Mar 13, 2008 by Jeff Robinson

McCain's Clinching of Nomination Could Mean He Fades from Spotlight

It's been an interesting week for the Democrats as Barack Obama easily won Mississippi while a Clinton associate resigned after making a race-related comment, all while the two traded remarks about the possibility, or lack thereof, of being each other's running mate. Meanwhile, John McCain is no longer facing any Republican challenger on the road to the White House -- but does that mean good or bad things for him?

Every week, we talk with Congressional Quarterly online editor Bob Benenson about the 2008 election. This week, he tells KCPW's Jeff Robinson the consequences for both sides as the Democrats fight on while McCain takes a breather.

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Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom and Election 2008. Copyright 2008 KCPW

1. Maritn said:

When analyzing the Mississippi primary, the pundits and the media are obsessed with skin color and gender. Since Mississippi has an open primary, where republicans can vote for democrats and vice versa, I find it more interesting to look at party affiliation. Using the CNN election and exit poll data, and some simple mathematics, we then learn that Hillary Clinton received 24% of her votes from republicans, 19% from independents and a surprisingly low 57% of her votes from democrats. The same numbers for Barack Obama are 5%, 15% and 80% respectively. Among the republicans, 59% voted for McCain, 23% for Clinton, 8% for Huckabee, 8% for Obama and 2% for Paul. Among independents, 44% voted for Obama, 35% for Clinton, 14% for McCain, 4% for Huckabee and 3% for Paul. Among democrats, 69% voted for Obama, 30% for Clinton, 1% for McCain and less than 1% for Huckabee and Paul.

Maybe the conventional wisdom is wrong, and republicans like Clinton much better than Obama. Maybe republicans followed Rush Limbaugh’s recent advice to cross the isle and vote for Clinton. In either case, it was republican voters that saved Clinton from a complete disaster in the Mississippi primary.

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