Outside the Beltway

Obama Clinches Nomination

James Joyner
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Barack Obama has passed the magic threshold of delegates required to win the Democratic nomination, the AP reports.

Obama Clinches Nomination

Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, becoming the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House.

[…]

The AP tally was based on public commitments from delegates as well as more than a dozen private commitments. It also included a minimum number of delegates Obama was guaranteed even if he lost the final two primaries in South Dakota and Montana later in the day.

This is a rather inexact science, since Democratic delegates, especially the unpledged superdelegates, can pretty much vote for whomever they please.

Photo credit: Pat Cunningham

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12 responses to “Obama Clinches Nomination”

  1. mannning Avatar
    mannning

    May God have mercy on us!

  2. anjin-san Avatar
    anjin-san

    May God have mercy on us!

    Yea, just think. Bush almost saved us from all this democracy and freedom crap…

  3. PD Shaw Avatar
    PD Shaw

    I’m confused by the notion of “a minimum number of delegates Obama was guaranteed even if he lost.” If nobody votes for Obama today, he wins delegates?

  4. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    I’m confused by the notion of “a minimum number of delegates Obama was guaranteed even if he lost.” If nobody votes for Obama today, he wins delegates?

    That line confused me also. I think they either mean they’re basing on minimum poll estimate, or that even if Obama lost all the delegates in these last elections, he’d still be the winner.

  5. se7en Avatar
    se7en

    WHAT HAPPENED TO FULL RSS FEEDS – they’re now PARTIAL?!?!

    Please change it back! This is one of the reasons why I kept reading this great blog… Please change it back to FULL rss subscription!

  6. James Joyner Avatar
    James Joyner

    WHAT HAPPENED TO FULL RSS FEEDS – they’re now PARTIAL?!?!

    Unfortunately, a growing number of thieves are republishing the posts in full using RSS scraper technology. People reading via RSS don’t generate revenue and feed scraping actually takes money out of my pocket, reducing the site’s Google ranking because we get labeled as “duplicate content.”

  7. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    Unfortunately, a growing number of thieves are republishing the posts in full using RSS scraper technology.

    You make it sound like it’s elite hacking. RSS feeds were designed to be parsed and processed, no scrapers involved. On your non-technical reasons though, you have a good argument.

    Of course, I’ve been using the Ad Block Plus extension for Firefox, so I’m kind of cheating you too, sorry about that. I’ve whitelisted OTB now, so expect a few extra pennies next month (It’s quite literally the least I could do), try not to spend it all at one place.

  8. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    I’m confused by the notion of “a minimum number of delegates Obama was guaranteed even if he lost.” If nobody votes for Obama today, he wins delegates?

    I found some clarification here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080603/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_32

    Obama effectively secured the magic number Tuesday, based on a tally of pledged delegates, superdelegates who have declared their preference, and another 15 superdelegates who have confirmed their intentions to The Associated Press.

    It also included delegates Obama was guaranteed as long as he gained 30 percent of the vote in South Dakota and Montana later in the day.

    Emphasis mine.

  9. rodney dill Avatar
    rodney dill

    May God have mercy on us!

    Actually I’m much happier to see Obama as the Democrat candidate (knock on wood, the convention hasn’t happened yet). I just do not want any possibility of a Hillary Presidency Monarchy.

  10. Dantheman Avatar
    Dantheman

    “I just do not want any possibility of a Hillary Presidency Monarchy.”

    Umm, only one party has been loudly proclaiming that the President has dictatorial powers in time of war. It ain’t the one Hillary is a member of.

  11. PD Shaw Avatar
    PD Shaw

    Thanks Michael,

    This story sounds more like very informed prognostication as opposed to news.

    Should the AP be running this kind of story when people are still heading to the polls?

  12. Fence Avatar
    Fence

    In addition to the 18,000 people in the arena, apparently 15,000 more turned away stayed to watch on a big screen outside. If Obama’s acceptance speech were moved to the Washington Mall on a nice Sunday afternoon, how many people could he draw? 2 million seems not out of the question. I don’t have a point here, just an observation

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