Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Digesting the Results

It's more like indigestion.

I'm trying to understand the lopsided victories for Barack Obama in states which overall tend to be more conservative than the nation as a whole.

Kansas went for Obama over Clinton by 74% to 26%.
In Idaho it was 80% to 17% for Obama.
Colorado went 67% to 32% for Obama.
And in Alaska it was 74% to 25%.

These results are in stark contrast to many other states where the margin of victory for either Obama or Clinton fell in the 5%-10% range.

I'm wondering if Democrats in the conservative states tend to be more conservative themselves, and if so, are they part of the national conservative anti-Clinton camp? Is it the anyone-but-Hillary effect? Or are they actually so frustrated after 7+ years of right-wing government, and angry at the conservatism in their own states that they were extremely motivated to vote for the candidate they feel is the more progressive of the two and does represent the best hope for real change? Or if those voters are more conservative than the average Democrat, do they feel Obama will be a more conservative president than Clinton?

Whatever the case, it was an interesting night.

And it seems, when we hold our Texas primary on March 4, we may actually have a chance to affect the outcome. Will wonders never cease? In Texas there are 228 oops! 193 Democratic delegates up for grabs.

Currently, Clinton has 582 and Obama has 485.

Buckle up.

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