West Virginia Primary: Clinton Expected To Win

West Virgina Democrats go to the polls Tuesday, where Sen. Hillary Clinton is expected to win easily over rival Barack Obama. Clinton has been campaigning hard in West Virginia, despite the fact that most Democrats now believe that Barack Obama will be their party's nominee:

The two candidates campaigned across West Virginia on Monday, with Mrs. Clinton's motorcade driving more than two hours through the winding hills of Appalachia, where she courted a relatively small number of voters in hopes of driving up her expected margin of victory. She is counting on a big victory to impress undecided superdelegates, the party leaders who will most likely decide the nomination.

Mrs. Clinton also wants to show strength in Kentucky and West Virginia -- states Democrats have struggled to carry in presidential elections -- not to mention, advisers say, pointing up what the Clinton campaign sees as the weakness of the Obama coalition. But advisers acknowledged that even if she won those states by wide margins, it was probably too late to change the dynamic of the nominating contest in her favor.

Poll Closing Times: Polls in West Virginia will be open from 6:30am to 7:30pm ET.

Pledged Delegates: 28 pledged delegates are at stake on Tuesday.

Latest Polling: A Suffolk University poll Monday showed Hillary Clinton with a 36-point lead over Barack Obama. Clinton leads Obama 60 to 24.

Comments

[KarateKid]

How can the Clinton camp claim they would beat McCain and Obama couldn't? After all, they had the established Democratic machine in all the big states....­...and couldn't beat Obama's grass roots campaigns in the heartlands.

These super delegates, while being opportunists, are not with a 5th grade education and won't be fooled by the McAuliffe/Wolfson gobbledygook.

[JiminNC]

The same way they claim the world is flat.

[KarateKid]

LMAO.

[KillTheMessenger]

Let's get it over with.

[maxrebel]

Hillary invites everybody to the giant cross burning at her victory
celebration in West Virginia !!!

She is on her way to be Grand Dragon of the Klan...er, I mean a great
President across the Land...

[TN60]

Good one !!!

[gwhizz]

Yet another post Obama can point to with pride.

[NetProphet]

Yeah - I wanna see you guys in November - if Clinton's our nominee - you better not be on the side of the MC CAINs the SAME.

It's not the personality that runs the show - but the policies.

[NoahVail]

According to Wolfson: "Our hope is that superdelegates will look at the results in some of these states and recognize that Senator Clinton would be the best nominee against John McCain."

I thought this campaign did not believe in HOPE. What may not be believable is hopeful wishing or wishful hoping...

[obamajusrocks]

Hilary will win WV as widely expected..­.

then look out for the torrent of BS her campaign will espew - making it like all the other 50 states don't matter and Hilary's win in WV is the the culmination - the mother of all battles and that it proves that she should be the nominee because of her over whelming "success"

pathetic

[KarateKid]

Well, she IS the Queen of Appalachia. She's one of them, after all. Look at her background­......
Wellesley '69; Yale Law School '73; First Lady of Arkansas, Board Member of Walmart (that bastion of worker's rights and feminism), First Lady of US....your typical beer chugging, shot drinking blue collar working girl, worth over $100 million.

[benne]

FDR was not "one of them," as you like to put it, and "they" loved him. What's your logic here. It only further suggests that "they" might be voting for her because she's the better candidate that offers them specifics on poilicies rather than elusive "hope" -- something more likely to be valued by people who are doing well already.

[JiminNC]

And the headlines on Wednesday? OBAMA LANDS 25 MORE SUPERDELEGATES WHILE HILLARY ENJOYS FUNNEL CAKES IN WV

[KarateKid]

LOL.

[CocteausTwin]

Chalk up another belly laugh to you, Jim

[lorisc]

I've heard of three more that will announce today. I was wondering if with sd's declaring for him he won't still end the day with a net gain, despite a loss in WV.

[Poohnc]

WV primary will again demonstrate the emerging pattern - hard working Americans do not support Obama.

[heal57]

Hard working Americand DO support Obama; just not in West Virginia or Kentucky.

[Amminadab]

Or Pennsylvania, or Ohio, or Florida, or Michigan.

Just how is Obama supposed to win the general election?

[KarateKid]

You don't look very hard working to me. It is YOU who lost the election for Hillary. We outworked your side, put our money where our mouths are, volunteered to sign up new voters, while you all arrogantly sat back and expected a coronation, deluded by the Democratic machine behind your gal.

[JiminNC]

They don't count that as hard work Kid. It only counts when they win and in this case, they got their butts handed to them in a WalMart sack.

[rzan]

You have to know that is not true. Please tell me you are just kidding.

[moonie]

I lived in West Virginia for two years and I can flat out tell you I don't know why either one bothered to campaign there. They are both way too liberal to carry WV in the general.

OBAMA '08

[amanda85]

As usual, she has the ignorant vote locked up...

[citadelgrrl05]

completely agree, these are the people that dont read for themselves this is the reason they re-elected bush,. I am so sick of these uneducated voters, CLINGING to their prejudices and ignorance. There is no room in tere American discourse for this non-sense, we all have access to people of different cultures, they have no excuse to still be this way, judge a man on his words and deeds not the ded of others.
WAKE UP AMERICA!!!

[macbabe]

Give the Obama workers on Obama's web site some MAJOR credit we have been calling WV voters all day and its been 50/50 and most people were very polite, a few less informed and there's no use arguing with them, but Obama people are playing it cordial and taking the high road no matter what comes out on the other end of the phone.

we'll pick up delegate's even though we won't win.

Obama left WV after an appearance and a speech to remove him from the spot light and let Hillary make her victory speech tomorrow.

[CocteausTwin]

Thank you for your efforts and manners.

[rzan]

Often the problem I have with the negative comments on Huffington Post from both sides is that each side assumes that these are the entire group of supporters for Obama or Clinton. Most people don't' comment on Huffington Post. There are so many more like you who have a balanced view and are just wanting to work hard for your candidate without villifying the other side. A very good friend of mine is a Hillary supporter. I think she is mistaken in her evaluation of Hillary and of Obama, but I do respect her decision. (By the way, I am not excluding myself from those who are posting negative comments about the other side).

[Geminess]

I agree as well. Apparently WVa has a populus that primarily does not think outside the proverbial box. Apparently MOST see things in basic Black and white with no room for progress. Hillary should be ashamed of herself the way she is race baiting in those states. Someone told me she had one commercial running where several implied that Obama would be working mainly for the Blacks and NOT all citizens of this country. Shame on you HRC! Shame on you. You had our vote. Your husband won twice because of our votes. However, because you and Bill contined to slide down that slippery slope of race-baiting, many like myself were disheartened and discouraged. THATS when we turned to Obama. YOU had our vote and tossed it aside.

[Amminadab]

"Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would utilize all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost." Michelle Robinson (Obama) - Princeton Thesis

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8642.html

[skepticalindenver]

LOL....tha­t idiot Wolfson says superdelegates "should look at thresults in some of the remaining primarys." Translation; "the primarys that she wins." Again...on­ly some states important rule.

[marc1antony]

Kentucky and WVA are both states with OBVIOUS racial overtones - there is NO WAY they would ever speak to how the other 48 states would vote in the General. West VA is not a gauge to be followed.

[proudthinker]

That's an ignorant statement. Hillary will win here in WV because she's been here nearly every day begging for votes, as well as the fact that WV loved Bill. If you want to talk about OBVIOUS racial overtones, do you want to mention the 92% or whatever of African Americans in NC voting for Obama? Or does it only work in "hick" whitey states?

[CocteausTwin]

He must think all the delegates are the uneducated people that Hillary sometimes appeals to.

[benne]

When people say Obama will win by the end of the primary, they mean he will win with a combined superdelegates and pledged delegates. This means that neither then will win with pledge delegates alone. It's a tie, folks. Of course, the media is so biased that they are trying to force Clinton to go home, hoping then that Obama might actually get the pledged delegates to say he's the official winner.

[whatchamean]

Drudge had a lovely picture of her in her canary yellow robe today. Made me want to be so bad.

[whatchamean]

crackers for clinton!

[ProfessorVP]

Is it just me, or should someone be embarrassed to brag about being the favorite to those "who haven't completed college." I mean, does this imply if they finished college, they would know better?

[OsamaBushLadin]

You must be a Professor of Vapid Prose, because that is an really unintelligent statement.

[ProfessorVP]

Actually, Einstein, it was a question.

[robXdion]

ouch....

[marc1antony]

Pretty much, huh?

[NoahVail]

No, you are not the only one. There are lots of us damned elitists in the world, although the term used to be "intellectual" wasn't it?

[Iraqnophobia]

yea, it used to be "intellectual" but then Huffpo came out and that was the end of that...

[gwhizz]

Wow. Again, wow.
Who are you to judge how anyone, college educated or not, makes a choice?

There are plenty of non-college educated Obama supporters, should we discount their votes too?

[dajay]

Attn: Huffington Post: 64% of Democrats don't want HIllary to drop out of the race.

Of course, we don't see that anywhere here in this article.

West Virginia, another state Obama can't win.

[iPolitics]

Are those the same 64% who wear kick me signs?

As West Virginia goes...I go the other way.

[lorisc]

From Amminada
We do not yet have a nominee.

You can keep saying the same thing you have been saying for months....­. but until he has the required number of delegates, he is not the nominee.

Currently, that number that number appears likely to be 2210..... but even that is not yet set in stone.

No, currently that number is 2025. Clinton has decided it's higher, but the rules of the DNC say 2025. You can't just make the rules up as you go as Hillary has.

Obama is less than 150 delegates away from the number needed to clinch the nomination. Obama will reach 2025 by the end of the primary. He will get about 1/2 of the remaining 212 delegates, bringing the number of delegates needed down to 50 to 60. He has gotten almost 30 sd's since last Tuesday. Really, he is going to win.

[frumke]

64%? I doubt it. Please tell me a current source for that statistic.

[Aleka4]

Yea I don't get that either. It must be a push poll or twisted conclusion or something. I can see being asked "should she stay in til the voting is complete if she can keep her mouth shut" getting that result.

But she can't keep her mouth shut. We have a nomineee, there is no reason any -real- dem should want Clinton to stay in since it is obvious she cannot do it gracefully and has so little self control that she can't resist trashing Obama some more.

[gwhizz]

It was on NBC news last night. It's probably been wiped off the website by now.

[Cunningham]

How did you come up with that figure?

[OsamaBushLadin]

Another one Obama can't win , just like 90% of retarded states that picked him as the democratic nominee. Almost all of them where republican states.

[mediateacher]

At this point, the primary is beginning to worry me, both as a democrat and an Obama supporter. CNN made an interesting comment this evening in that Clinton is basically mapping a strategy for McCane and the GOP to follow in the upcoming election.

I am not a Hillary hater and would have supported her if she were the nominee, however this insatiable desire of hers to continue in a losing battle says to me that she wants to destroy any possible chance of Obama winning the general election.

Honestly America, please look past race and listen to the issues, policy, message and other important matters to this country and its citizens. If it makes people feel strong and powerful to vote against Obama if Hillary loses, then we deserve four more years of weak leadership.

Cheers.

[CocteausTwin]

God I hope Hillary is helping McCain to map a strategy. Its worked so well for her.

[CocteausTwin]

Please tell me you only watch CNN due to what I might assume is your job.

[eej]

Did she do any clogging yet? Eat turtledove? Toss back moonshine?

(Seriously I love Appalachian music. Clogging, too. The movie Songcatcher is terrific.)