There’s no other way to put it: Barack Obama is on a roll.
Since the so-called “Super Tuesday” primaries on February 5, of which he won a majority of contests, Senator Barack Obama has won 10 primaries and caucuses in a row.
From Washington D.C. to Washington state, Obama has defeated Senator Hillary Clinton in states a different from each other as that are distant. In Politics 101, they call this momentum. A better term might be inertia, as the Obama campaign continues in its existing state of motion towards the nomination, unless that state is changed by an external force (that would be the Clinton campaign or a serious Obama misstep).
Here are the contests that Obama has won since Super Tuesday. None of them have even been close.
Louisiana (Feb 9) by 21 points
Nebraska (Feb 9) by 36 points
Virgin Islands (Feb 9) by 82 points
Washington (Feb 9) by 37 points
Maine (Feb 10) by 19 points
Maryland (Feb 12) by 23 points
Virginia (Feb 12) by 29 points
Washington D.C. (Feb 12) by 49 points
Wisconsin (Feb. 19) by 17 points
Hawaii (Feb. 19) by 52 points
The Clinton campaign has made it clear that the Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4 are must-wins for her. As is the Pennsylvania primary on April 22.
They also had a Democratic primary in Washington state last night, although it was just a beauty contest that didn’t determine any delegates. Last I saw, Obama’s lead was less than a blowout, with only a 3-point lead with a little over half the vote counted, and no network had called the race. Today on the web, the results are damned hard to find.
Nevertheless, WA won’t blunt Obama’s inertia. If Obama beats her in Texas (where polls are tight) and Ohio (where Hillary leads) on Mar 4, it’s over, unless Hillary tries to pull backroom convention tricks to thwart the will of the people.
Obama achieved major inroads and outright majorities among traditionally Democratic-voting white and lower/middle income voters in Wisconsin. This is continuing progress for him among these demographics that started right here in Missouri, where Obama began to significantly peel off from Clinton white lower/middle income traditional Democrats.
Make it 11 straight. BArry handily won the Democrats Abroad Primary.