Obama and Clinton each picked up 2 pledged delgates in Guam this weekend. Obama now has 1,493 pledged delegates. Clinton has 1,334 pledged delegates. Of the remaining 404 delegates yet to be pledged, Clinton would need to win 282 of them to beat Obama. That's a victory of 70 percent to 30 percent. There is not a single political reporter in the country who considers that a remote possibility, and yet every media outlet covers this "race" as if either candidate could win.
On Tuesday, voters in North Carolina will dole out another 115 delegates, possibly handing roughly 63 to Obama and 52 to Clinton, and Indiana will provide another 72 delegates, possibly 36 to each candidate. Should that happen, Obama would have 1,592 pledged delegates, and Clinton 1,422, with 217 remaining to be pledged. Of those 217, Clinton would need to win 194 to beat Obama, or a victory of 89 percent to 11 percent. Not even Rupert Murdoch imagines that could happen.
Will Clinton finally drop out on Wednesday? Will she wait another week for West Virginia, or yet another week for Kentucky and Oregon? Will she hang in there until June to make sure Puerto Rico doesn't win it for her, or Montana and South Dakota? And will people dumb enough to still watch television have to endure this crap all summer?
These numbers are based on leaving out Florida and Michigan, which are being left out, and also do not include 19 delegates pledged to John Edwards.
These numbers do not include Super Delegates.
But these are the indisputable numbers of delegates assigned to candidates by actual voters and caucus-goers.
Clinton cannot win. Period. She can only hope for an anti-democratic coup by Super Delegates that would destroy the Democratic Party.
So, why does the corporate media behave as if it's still a contest, and why does the independent media obediently fall into line? Presumably those two questions have two different answers.
When has any other candidate been kept on life-support by media corporations in this way? Hasn't the standard for dropping out always been - for every other candidate - the impossibility of winning, not actually having lost?
What can Clinton hope to gain from staying in other than hurting Obama's chances in order to avoid his running as an incumbent in 4 years?
And why is it so difficult for people to think for themselves and let the media and the Super Delegates and the Democratic Party know that WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH?
Don't believe me? Don't know how to do addition? Don't own a calculator? Here's a video of Chris Matthews admitting the media's role in this farce:
http://www.davidswanson.org
DAVID SWANSON is a co-founder of After Downing Street, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997.
What Hillary decides to do may depend on whether Rezko decides to "sing" to get a lighter sentence. If he does, and implicates Obama, all bets are off. The rumors are that he will do so before the end of the trial which is coming close now. Obama is on the witness list and can still be called if the prosecutor determines that his testimony is needed to convict Rezko.
by
TheSeeker (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 28 comments)
on Sunday, May 4, 2008 at 6:34:47 PM
Please know that the US is blowing up and permanently "nuking" the islands of Guam for radioactive Depleted Uranium military training and target practice:
With the wasting of Guam, the Hawaiian Islands, the Marshall Islands, Vieques in Puerto Rico, Okinawa, San Nicolas off the CA coast and many, many other islands, it is clear the empire has never met a pristine island with a delicately fragile ecosystem that it did not want to permanently waste with radioactivity for billions of years.
Ahhh... Proud to be an American we certainly all can be!
Cathy Garger
by
Cathy Garger (21 articles, 5 quicklinks, 22 diaries, 84 comments)
on Sunday, May 4, 2008 at 7:28:05 AM
