Obama leads Clinton and McCain in national polls
Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s impressive sweep of victories over the past week has put him ahead of rival New York Senator Hillary Clinton in delegates, making him the frontrunner for the first time in the Democratic Presidential race.
Obama also now leads Clinton in several national voter polls.
Among the 21 LGBT super delegates, over half of them still support Clinton, according to the Washington Blade.
Obama has now won all of the last seven contests on the road to the Democratic Presidential nomination.
On Saturday, Obama won victories in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state and claimed a win in the Maine Democratic caucuses on Sunday.
On Tuesday, Obama won the District of Columbia primary by a huge margin, leading Clinton 75 percent to 24 percent with 98 percent of precincts currently reporting in.
He also won the Maryland primary and the Virginia primary the same day.
The Obama campaign has told the press they believe he now has an insurmountable lead over Hillary Clinton in convention delegates and is on track to take the Democratic nomination.
According to the Associated Press and CNN, Obama now has the lead in delegates over Clinton, though counts vary from different media sources. A few sources, including The New York Times, still show Clinton with a slight edge in delegates.
“The race, at the end of the day, comes down to pledged delegates,” said Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, according to the Dallas Morning News.
“Even the most creative math doesn’t get her back to even in terms of pledged delegates. We believed all along the pledged delegate leader would be the nominee of the party.”
The Clinton campaign, however, has no intention of conceding the race to Obama.
“From our perspective, we expect change to begin March 4th,” Clinton representative Mark Penn said, according to the Dallas Morning News.
“We’re looking at favourable groups within these states. We’ve gone through the ups and downs of this race. We fully expect March 4th we will be back in a strong position.”
An Associated Press/Ipsos poll released on Monday showed Obama with a 46 percent to 41 percent lead over Hillary Clinton among likely voters.
The poll also gave Obama a 48 percent to 42 percent lead against Republican Arizona Senator John McCain, if Obama were to win the Democratic nomination.
Clinton, however, was in a near tie with McCain, leading him by only 1 point if she were selected as the nominee.
A Gallup/USA Today poll released on Monday also put Obama ahead with a 47 percent to 44 percent lead over Clinton.
On the Republican side, McCain lead all other candidates by large margins, winning over closest competitor Mike Huckabee at 53 percent to 27 percent.
Ann Turner © 2007 GayWired.com; All Rights Reserved.
