Obama Wins the Wisconsin Primary

Posted on 2/20/2008 2:19:00 PM

It was yet one more point scored for Barack Obama—and one lost for Hillary Clinton. Democrat Barack Obama won the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday. With this win, Obama's victories over the past three weeks now total nine. Clinton, meanwhile, has lost another chance to make up for her fast flagging fortune.

While the white female votes were split almost equally between Obama and Clinton, the Illinois senator also scored well with the working class by winning a significant number if the blue collar votes. Speaking to a loudly cheering crowd in Houston, Obama said, "The change we seek is still months and miles away."

Economy and trade were held to be the key issues in the race. Seven out of ten voters held that international trade had caused people to lose losing their jobs in Wisconsin. Less than one of five voters said that trade had given rise to more jobs than it has lost.

Clinton, who seems to have lost a good portion of what was traditionally her turf, to Obama, however, did not seem perturbed. Addressing an audience in Youngstown, Ohio, she did not show any sign of defeat, nor did she mention Obama's win.

"Both Senator Obama and I would make history," the former first lady said. "But only one of us is ready on day one to be commander in chief, ready to manage our economy, and ready to defeat the Republicans. Only one of us has spent 35 years being a doer, a fighter and a champion for those who need a voice."

That television networks chose to interrupt a telecast of Clinton's speech to cover Obama's address is indicative of the popular perception of the rankings enjoyed by the two rival leaders.

Meanwhile, on the Republican side, Senator John McCain won. Having defeated Mike Huckabee, McCain is now even closer to winning the1,191 delegates that he needs to secure his nomination from the Republican Party. Evidently indicating that Obama's campaign rested on an empty premise, McCain said, "I will fight every moment of every day in this campaign to make sure that Americans are not deceived by an eloquent but empty call for change."

Following the defeat of most of his rivals, McCain now seems certain of winning the Republican Party's nomination. However, the outcome of the race is not all that clear amongst the Democrats. With the Ohio and Texas primaries approaching, it is said, Clinton would need to win at least one of them—and maybe even both—if she has any chance of catching up with Obama.

According to poll surveys, about a quarter of the votes in Wisconsin were independent votes, while 15 percent were first time voters. This is significant when one considers that Obama has earlier scored strongly amongst the independents and younger voters.