UPDATE [7:29 PM]: CNN has projected Sen. Barack Obama as the winner of the Mississippi primary. This was considered an easy win for Obama due to high turnout among African Americans who, according to CNN, make up as much as 60 percent of the Democratic vote in the state and were trending in favor of the candidate.
How the vote falls will determine how many of Mississippi’s 33 delegates Obama will receive.
ORIGINAL STORY: Depending on who you ask this is a meaningful fight for delegates or a mere formality in Mississippi today where the latest primary in a season of primary fever for the Democratic nomination for president.
Despite wet conditions in part of the state, Miss. election officials report that the turnout is good at the polls where Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are vying for delegates in Dixie - the cotton rich state of Mississippi.
The Associated Press is reporting that Obama is the favorite to win Mississippi which has a large black Democratic electorate. Obama has been successful in pulling more than 80 percent of the black votes in most states.
This is the latest dust-up leading to a decisive battle in Pennsylvania April 22nd. The AP said that Clinton popped up in Pennsylvania yesterday with Clinton not expecting to win Mississippi. Obama was also on his way to Pennsylvania as he made on last stop in Greenville, Miss., speaking on the economic strife in the Mississippi delta. The day before Obama was in Columbus and Jackson, the state capitol.
Thirty-three delegates are in play.
Obama used his appearances in Mississippi to shoot down Clinton’s veep talk, poo-poo any such arrangement when he’s leading in delegates and states won. He was especially direct in his criticism of Clinton’s statements pointing at the bipolar nature of Clinton’s campaign who has attack Obama as being unprepared and too inexperienced to be president while tossing the joint ticket bait around liberally.
“I don’t know how somebody who is in second place is offering the vice presidency to the person who is first place,” Obama said, drawing cheers and a lengthy standing ovation from about 1,700 people. He added: “I am not running for vice president. “I am running for president of the United States of America.”
Later, at a rally in Jackson with 9,000 people, Obama painted Clinton as part of the Washington establishment whose time has come and gone.
The nation does not need “the same old folks doing the same old things, talking the same old stuff,” he said, essentially lumping Clinton with President Bush and Republican candidate John McCain.
In other election news:
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was in St. Louis yesterday raking in some much needed cash for his national campaign. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting that McCain made an appearance at the Hilton St. Louis Frontenac hotel for a $1,000-per-person event.
The party was hosted by some of the toniest families in the region, including the Busches of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., the Taylors of Enterprise Rent-A-Car and the Foxes of Harbour Group.
Today McCain is having a town hall meeting with the employees of Savvis Inc., a West County based company. At the event he’s supposed to pump up his campaign message, covering the War on Terror to improving the economy.
Clinton dodged questions in Scranton, Penn. regarding New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s sex scandal that has rocked the state. Spitzer was a Clinton supporter who is a super delegate and has been a fund raiser for her campaign.
“I don’t have any comment on that,” she said when asked about reports that Spitzer allegedly paid for sex with a high-priced call girl at a Washington hotel. “Obviously, I am sending my best wishes and thoughts to the governor and to his family,” Clinton said.
