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Edwards: Obama won Texas
Sen. Barack Obama has won Texas and the “game is over” in the state, said U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.
Five Democratic members of Congress from Texas who support Obama, including Edwards, joined the conference call to put their own spin on the results from this weekend’s regional county conventions. Their conclusion was that Obama had won Texas despite national media reports to the contrary based on the March 4 primary results.
On Tuesday the Associated Press released an analysis showing that Obama had won 58 percent of the regional convention vote, giving him a total of 99 pledged national delegates from Texas.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had previously won 65 delegates based on the March 4 primary vote, which she won by 51 percent.
“In a football or basketball game what counts is how many points are on the score board at the end of the game,” Edwards said. “The final score in Texas is Obama 99 and Clinton 94. It appears the Clinton campaign declared victory at half-time, but neither super bowls or presidential nominations are decided at half-time.”
When asked by reporters about what effect Obama would have on Democrats in November running in down-ballot races if he was the party’s presidential nominee, Edwards, said independent voters would be key.
“And clearly Sen. Obama with his message of change has been able to reach out to independent voters,” he said. “I think for that reason that Sen. Obama will not only have long coat tails for Democrats in November, but his ability to convince independents and many Republicans to vote for him gives him the best chance to win in November.”
Edwards also answered a reporter’s question about a commonly repeated theory that if Hillary Clinton became the Democratic Party’s nominee that it could drive more Republicans to vote that would otherwise stay home.
“I think in some ways Hillary Clinton would unify Republicans in a way that John McCain cannot,” he said.
Edwards conceded that the overall result of the caucus results could change at the state convention, where all delegates can change their presidential preference. However, Edwards said he believed the result would only change by a single delegate.
After the conference call, the Burnt Orange Report, a liberal Texas political blog tracking the caucus results, reported that Obama’s lead in caucus selected national delegates had dropped by one.
Comments
By goinsouth
April 2, 2008 8:31 AM | Link to this
Then everyone vote a straight Republican ticket. Hussein Obama Bin Laden will want us all reading from the Koran.
By OAK
April 3, 2008 7:41 PM | Link to this
goinsouth-you are an idiot.
By David Gray
April 4, 2008 8:55 AM | Link to this
ma does not win and fullfill whatever pormise he made to Chet.
Then Chet will have to run again in 2010 unless he realy ia tired of his current job.
He needs to start remembering his friends that do all the work for his campaigns.
By Macy
April 4, 2008 9:09 PM | Link to this
Hillary Clinton is rallying voters across the board with her vision — including Central Texas voters who have never been active before — I have talked to them and they are commmitted, passionate. Voters are much more independent-minded these days. Counting on “unifying Republicans” or any given group is shaky ground upon which to base strategy. And proclaiming that one Democratic candidate more than the other will unify the Republicans — ? Very faulty reasoning, and the average of the reliable polls show it. So the score card for the Dems onthe issues that matter (the war and the economy)? Hillary will responsibly return the troops (like she has said all along) and will create a cabinet position addressing poverty. Obama is already waffling on his shut-down position (see http://www.nysun.com/politics/obama-adviser-calls-troops-stay-iraq-through-2010) and won’t know how to run the traps on the economy. According to him, ending Iraq spending will fix the economy — but now he is saying that won’t happen until 2010? Where did the intense “urgency of now” go? Hillary can and will actually effect change that will be delivered to your checkbook, your dinner table, your gas tank, your security. You don’t know from one day to the next what you will get with Obama — in fact, you don’t know the half of who Barack Obama is, but the Republicans are poised to ram it down our throats as we approach November. Supporting Obama is buying into a cream puff deal that turns into buyer’s remorse. Hillary is the best-bet candidate for the long-term horse race if you want to shut down the war and have an economy with benefits for the whole country.
By Sommer
April 10, 2008 9:14 AM | Link to this
Despite Hillary Clinton’s repetitive remarks about how Obama simply talks about change but isn’t an actual steward of change and progress, I believe he has united people in this nation in a way that nothing has in awhile. Clinton and her campaign are too eager to discredit Obama and the great strides he has made in his campaign. They did indeed declare victory when the game was far from over.