Obama Pulls Ahead in Swing States

Barack Obama is now ahead in polling for all the "swing" states except Florida and New Mexico (tied) - plus he is ahead in Virginia, Missouri, Colorado. This results in a projection of 309 Electoral Votes for Obama and 221 for McCain. Obama clearly has gotten a bump from the Democratic nomination fight ending - the question is whether this is a bump or a trend. Absent a game changer, this race is starting to look alot like the '96 Race with Clinton and Dole. In fact McCain and Dole are very similar candidates.

it was a good week for Obama. McCain's comment that he does not care how long the troops are in Iraq, then his clarification that what he meant was that it is ok if U.S. troops are in Iraq for as long as we were in Korea, as long as they are not shot at. Obama countered that it is not ok if we are straining the troops with 4+ deployments and spending $12 billion a month of taxpayer money. A losing argument for McCain. So the Republican surragates instead attach Obama as "exotic" (code word for foreign or african american) and complain that Obama folks call McCain "confused" because they think it is a code word for old and senile. When you can't win the argument you attack the media.

Obama Clinches Democratic Nomination

According to the AP Obama has enough delegates to clinch the nomination for President for the Democratic Party. NBC News and CNN projections have him just short of the nomination, however Obama is likely to gain additional delegates from South Dakota and Montana, plus additional superdelegates.

Obama is scheduled to give a major speach tonight in Minneapolis, at the location of the 2008 Republican National Convention. Hillary Clinton is scheduled to give a speach in New York City, however she is indicating she will not suspend her campaign. All indications are that her campaign is ending after today. John McCain is giving a speach in New Orleans tonight as well.

Florida and Michigan Delegations Seated, Hillary Wins Puerto Rico

Yesterday, the Democratic Party leaders seated all delegates for Florida and Michigan with each delegate allocated 0.5 votes toward nomination of the Democratic Presidential candidate. This has raised the number of delegates needed to win the nomination to 2,118.

Today Hillary Clinton easily won the Puerto Rico primary 68% to 32%, however there was a much lower turnout of vote, which means that Obama has retained his lead in the popular vote count.

Obama is now about 52 delegates shy of the nomination, including superdelegates.