CanadaNews’ Reporter Notes

Call it whatever you want, Hillary Rodham Clinton won…and won BIG! Illinois U.S. Senator Barack Obama may have the momentum, but Hillary did win. I have noticed that when Obama wins a state that he is expected or projected to win, the media bends over backwards giving him praise. When Hillary wins, the media says it’s a hollow victory. They say she’s just dragging out the inevitable. The news is never good.

We should be ashamed of ourselves.

The good thing about Sen. Clinton thumping of Obama is that it shows where Obama is doing the worst at connecting with potential voters. The bad news is it gives McCain’s team angles to use – if Obama is the nominee. Many of these Hillary voters have said if Obama receives the democratic nomination, the possibility of them voting for McCain, or not voting at all, is pretty good.

Sen. Clinton’s victory might be only a symbolic win to some, but it shows that Hillary still has teeth. She still has a chance, and sometimes that is all you need.

This is one of Barack Obama’s worst defeats of the campaign yet, but many pollsters say it will do nothing to slow his march toward the Democratic presidential nomination.

Obama barely campaigned in West Virginia personally. He did however spend twice as much money as Hillary did in the coal mining state. Sen. Obama has been concentrating on the Oregon primary later in the month. He has also opening talked about his strategy in the general election campaign against Republican Senator John McCain. As I mentioned before, the defeat underscored his weakness among blue collar voters. These people are pivotal in the fall.

This win is as big as it gets for Hillary. If she could win a state like Oregon, that would be a big win. She might pull out a victory in Kentucky…..MAYBE. These West Virginia voters are the kinds of voters who favored her in past primaries. They are older, and like those of the past, have no education beyond high school. More than half were in families with incomes of $50,000 or less, and the former first lady won a whopping 69 percent of their votes.

Clinton has performed strongly among white working-class voters. Being that West Virginia is 95 percent white and has no urban centre, it’s expected that she’d do well. In other states like Ohio and Pennsylvania she has thrived and Obama just hasn’t been able to put a real message together that her supporters can by into. That, in turn, has allowed the former first lady to openly question Obama’s chances in a general election against Republican John McCain.

Along with the win, she took at least 15 of the 28 delegates with her. There are still 13 more to be allocated.

Even so, Clinton’s aides contended that her strength with blue-collar voters — already demonstrated in primaries in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana — makes her the more electable candidate in the fall.

Today Clinton has a meeting with several superdelegates. About 250 of them remain publicly uncommitted.

The delegate tally aside, the former first lady struggled to overcome an emerging Democratic consensus that Obama effectively wrapped up the nomination last week with a victory in the North Carolina primary and a narrow loss in Indiana.

Clinton and Obama briefly shook hands on the Senate floor Tuesday after interrupting their campaigns for a few hours to vote on energy-related bills.

Obama was in West Virginia on Monday, but it more of a publicity thing. He knew the odds were against him. His mind was on the northwest. He has more of a chance in a progressive state like Oregon. It’s clear to me that he will prevail –and should.