Obama Handily Sweeps Potomac

Barack Obama today handily swept the Potomac primaries, getting 75% to Clinton's 24% in our Nation's Capitol, winning by a whopping 51% of the vote. In Virginia, Obama got 64% to Clinton's 35% winning by 29%. In Maryland, Obama took 60% to Clinton's 37%, his most narrow victory of the evening with a 23% lead. This puts Senator Obama's pledged delegate count 120 ahead of Clinton's. Next week, Obama is expected to take Hawaii by a large margin, and Wisconsin is still open and Clinton feels she has a shot there.

After that, Obama has to step up his game in Texas and Ohio. If he can win in those two states, the nomination would be all but clinched. Clinton has to do well in those two states if she wants to stay in this thing as a serious contender. If she can't pull off more than a 10% win in those states, it would be hard for her to accumulate enough delegates to pose a real threat to Obama's nomination.

According to MSNBC's calculations, Obama has 1128 pledged delegates to Clinton's 1009. When you factor in the superdelegates who have weighed in, Obama's total is 1306 to Clinton's 1270. For the first time since the race began, Obama is finally ahead of Clinton in delegates.

Also according to MSNBC, Obama has a lead in the popular vote now, as well, even when you factor in Florida and Michigan. So far, Barack Obama has won the most states, the most pledged delegates, and the popular vote. I am in no way trying to call this nomination for Obama at this point. Clinton still has a lot of fight left in her. Obama has to stay on top of her and make sure that he remains at least competitive in any state she wins from here on out. He cannot allow her any large wins. If Hillary wins her states with 60% of the vote or more, she will still be in this thing after March 4th.

Obama is expected to win both Hawaii and Wisconsin next Tuesday, expanding his delegate lead even more. Clinton hopes to keep that lead slim. Hawaii is Obama's birth state, and it is a caucus state, both of which favor Obama, so Clinton doesn't have much of a chance there. She's spending three days in Wisconsin in an attempt to either win it, or at least try to slim down Obama's lead there. After that, there are no votes until March 4^th, on which Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island, and Vermont vote. If Barack Obama can manage to win all of those states, most importantly, Texas and Ohio, Hillary won't have much of a chance left.