Reprinted from Wallwritings
In her effort to become the first woman President of the United States, former First Lady Hillary Clinton easily won three Democratic primary states Tuesday night.
Clinton won, by comfortable margins, in Ohio, North Carolina and Florida. She appeared tied in Missouri to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
In an unsettling display of her nagging vulnerabilities, Clinton had to hold off a late surge from Sanders, to gain a narrow victory in her home state of Illinois.
What really matters in these primaries, however, is not the popular vote, but the number of delegates won. Clinton's three big wins Tuesday were in states where the winner takes all of the delegates. In Illinois and Missouri delegates are allocated through district voting.
Clinton's impressive victories in Ohio, North Carolina and Florida leave her with an almost insurmountable total of delegates in her campaign to return the Clinton family to the White House. She and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, lived and served there from 1993 to January, 2001.
Clinton's pro-Israel stance had projected easy victories in Florida and Illinois, two states with heavy Jewish voting pockets. She did win impressively in Florida but she almost lost Illinois in the popular vote totals.
One of Sanders' weaknesses is that his Vermont-based political career did not call for extensive minority interaction. Sanders has been a civil rights activist at the University of Chicago, but his prime political passion has been economic reform, not peace and justice.
His economic focus is a strength, but he still runs well behind Clinton in endorsements from racial minorities and from women. That is a high barrier for Sanders to climb.
Sanders did gain one important female endorsement, which was reported by Washington Post political writer John Wagner before Tuesday's primaries.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Hawaii, (pictured above) resigned from her post on the Democratic National Committee, to throw her support to Senator Sanders. Wagner described the campaign support Rep. Gabbard brings to Sanders:
"KISSIMMEE, Florida -- The thousands of people who have streamed to Bernie Sanders's rallies around the country in recent days have been treated to an opening act -- Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii -- who arguably does more to articulate Sanders's views on foreign policy than he does.
"Gabbard, 34, who resigned as vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee last month to endorse Sanders for president, has been tasked with introducing him at recent events, including one here Thursday that drew more than 5,000 people.
"Unlike the Vermont senator, who focuses heavily on domestic policy at his rallies, Gabbard is talking about U.S. entanglements abroad. And she doesn't pull any punches when relaying what she sees as a crucial difference between Sanders and her party's front-runner, Hillary Clinton.
"'The choice before us is this,' Gabbard told the crowd here. 'We can vote for Hillary Clinton and ... get more of these interventionist, regime-change wars that have cost us so much, or we can vote for and support Bernie Sanders, end these counterproductive, costly interventionist wars and invest here at home, because we cannot afford to do both.'"
A female member of Congress who supports Sanders' stance against interventionism, should strengthen Sanders' foreign policy credibility among progressive Democratic voters.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
