Usually, a prominent presidential contender running a primary campaign without serious opposition and with strong in-state support from party leaders can count on winning 90 percent or more of the vote. That's how it went for George Bush when he was running without serious opposition in Republican primaries in 2004, and for Bill Clinton when he was essentially unopposed in the Democratic primaries in 1996.
But Hillary Clinton got nowhere near 90 percent of the vote in Tuesday's Michigan primary.
With most of the ballots counted, the New York senator was winning uninspiring 55 percent of the Democratic primary vote.
A remarkable 40 percent of Michiganders who participated in the primary voted for nobody, marking the "Uncommitted" option on their ballots. Another 4 percent backed Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who brought his anti-war, anti-corporate campaign to Michigan and made some inroads among Muslim voters in the Detroit area and liberals in Washtenaw County -- where he was taking almost 10 percent.
But "Uncommitted" was Clinton's most serious challenger in Michigan.
Oh yeah, she's our best hope against the Republicans.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Don't forget Dodd got 1% -- that's right, 1% of voters would rather go for a guy who's already bowed out than Hill or Dennis. However, if Michigan's delegates won't be allowed at the convention (per the DNC), what's the diff? Seriously though, those UNCOMMITTED are a tough crowd, I'd hate to be the DNC usher who tries to tell them they can't be seated.
ReplyDeleteIf they could have found a dead guy to run they may have completely knocked Hillary out of the running.
ReplyDelete