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Democratic contest wide open
The latest round of Democratic
contests has left everyone asking, "Now what happens?"
Sen. Hillary Clinton says her wins
Tuesday night mean voters think she can win in the fall.
The Texas caucuses -- which offer up
about a third of the state's delegates -- are still too close to call.
Obama didn't lose his lead, but he
lost his momentum. The Illinois senator was on a 12-contest winning
streak since Super Tuesday before Clinton stopped him by winning the two
big prizes Tuesday night.
CNN's latest delegate count has Obama
with 1,520 delegates to Clinton's 1,424. To clinch the Democratic
nomination, a candidate must get 2,025 delegates. But because the
Democratic delegates are allocated proportionally, the race appears to
be headed to the party's convention in August. Clinton or Obama would
need substantial wins in almost all of the remaining contests to get the
magic number.
The Democrats' next big primary is
seven weeks away. The race shifts to Pennsylvania, where 158 delegates
are at stake. Wyoming and Mississippi hold contests before then, but
there aren't as many delegates up for grabs.
Both camps already have their
Pennsylvania teams working hard.
"Pennsylvania on paper is a good state
for Clinton. It's a lot like Ohio demographically. Like in Ohio, she has
the support of the very politically active governor, Ed Rendell. So I
think Obama has his work cut out for him there," said Mark Halperin, a
political analyst with Time magazine.
The upcoming contests will be crucial
in determining who holds the momentum, but the math's not there to crown
a winner.
"There are not enough votes left among
pledged delegates for anybody to win the nomination," said Mary Frances
Berry, former chairwoman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. "One
person's going to be ahead, one's going to be behind. It will come down
to the superdelegates."
The nearly 800 superdelegates --
various party leaders and officials who cast their vote at the
convention -- are free to vote for the candidate of their choice.
Based on superdelegates who have
publicized their preference, Clinton leads Obama 238-199. |