“It looks like America, doesn’t it?”
This was U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay’s spontaneous remark when he saw the crowd of Barack Obama supporters assembled Tuesday night at the Moolah Theatre to watch the election returns.
The group was mixed in every way – by race, gender, age, dress code. Clay, one of Obama’s earliest and most active congressional supporters, was seeing the campaign message of change made manifest in his hometown.
“He defines America – who we are,” Clay said of Obama.
On Tuesday, Missouri Democrats decided Obama defines who they want in a president. At press time, Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan had reported Obama with 405,470 votes (49.2 percent) to Hillary Clinton’s 394,991 votes (48.0 percent).
Obama’s margin of victory in St. Louis City and St. Louis County were even larger. In St. Louis City, Obama won 47,675 votes (71.07 percent) to Clinton’s 18,291 votes (27.27 percent). In St. Louis County, Obama won 117,108 votes (62.55 percent) to Clinton’s 66,886 votes (35.72 percent).
These numbers are remarkable for several reasons. As U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, another early Obama supporter, pointed out Tuesday, Missouri is “a bell-weather state” with an uncanny record of predicting who will win the presidency.
Obama’s 405,470 votes in Missouri on Tuesday more than doubled the number of votes received by the winner of the Republican Primary in Missouri, John McCain, who got 194,119 votes.
Also, polls leading up to Tuesday’s primary had Obama trailing Clinton in most states, including Missouri, but steadily gaining ground.
“This campaign closed gaps in many states to win tonight,” Clay told the American on Tuesday. “In some cases, we were double digits down.”
Tuesday night, Obama also won primaries and caucuses in Illinois, Georgia, Delaware, Alabama, Utah, Connecticut, Kansas, Minnesota, Colorado, North Dakota, Idaho and Alaska.
Clinton won in California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, Arizona and American Samoa.
Obama’s victory in Missouri also was important because it was won by an electorate energized at record levels. According to Robin Carnahan, the 2008 primary set records for turnout, surpassing 2004 totals by approximately 870,000 votes and 2000 totals by nearly 670,000 votes. Overall, more than 1.4 million Missouri voters cast ballots on Tuesday.
“He is expanding the base of his party,” Clay said of Obama.
Though voter demographics were unavailable, it was evident by some of the states where Obama won – and by the local crowd at the Moolah – that his appeal has crossed over barriers such as race and gender.
“He won in Kansas and Idaho,” U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, yet another critical Obama supporter in Missouri, told the American, before jesting, “Are there any black people in Idaho?”
McCaskill is the only woman U.S. senator who endorsed Obama over Clinton. Her support was judged to be critical in Obama’s win Tuesday night, just as the vote of another white female elected official, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, was seen as instrumental in his landslide victory in Kansas. (Obama’s mother, the late Stanley Ann Dunham, also was a white woman from Kansas.)
“Trying to call Obama ‘the black candidate’ is just an attempt to marginalize him,” McCaskill said.
“It’s also short-changing the American people. Tuesday night proved that white people everywhere are willing to vote for Barack Obama.”
As Obama himself said Tuesday night from his Chicago campaign headquarters, “Maybe we don’t have to be divided by race, region or gender.”
Delegate counts
As was widely reported, Obama won more states Tuesday night, but the states Clinton won will carry more delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August. Though counts are still unofficial, Clinton won at least 395 delegates on Tuesday to Obama’s 357. Overall, Clinton has 656 delegates to 559 for Obama, with 2,025 delegates required to win the nomination.
Less widely understood is that Clinton owes her advantage to super-delegates – elected officials and others appointed by the DNC to help decide the party’s candidate. By popular vote, Obama is ahead in the primary.
“If you count only delegates won through elections, then the people have voted for Barack Obama,” McCaskill said.
“Hillary’s margin in delegates is entirely due to politicians or insiders in state politics.”
One such delegate appointed by the DNC is state Rep. Maria Chapelle-Nadal, an African-American woman clearly drawn to both front-runners. Voters in her district chose Obama on Tuesday, but she told the American yesterday she intends to remain “neutral” and follow the party’s eventual nomination.
Clay said the Obama campaign was emboldened by Tuesday’s results.
“The Clinton camp didn’t have a strategy after Super Tuesday,” Clay said.
“They thought she would be coronated. Clearly, that is not the case. I hope this race goes all the way to the convention.”
McCaskill pointed out that the work of Obama supporters in Missouri is not done.
“There are still a lot of important primaries coming up, in Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C.,” she said. “People need to be calling their family and friends in those areas and telling them to vote for Barack Obama.”
As Obama told supporters on Tuesday, “Let’s go to work.”
Quiet Clinton party
While hundreds of people packed Obama’s rally at the Moolah, a smaller number of Clinton supporters gathered at Laclede Station Grill next to Saint Louis University.
James Clark, who earlier in the week chastised the Clinton campaign for not financially backing an effort to drive black voters to the polls, was in attendance. Former John Edwards supporter state Rep. Connie Johnson, a recent Clinton convert, also was on the scene.
Mayor Francis G. Slay was there throughout the evening as well, but he was not able to celebrate a Clinton victory.
Casey Dangerfield, an African-American male Clinton supporter, said he favors her over Obama “because she has a lot of ideas on how to jump-start the economy.”
Dangerfield, 30, said while Obama is black “I’m not going to vote for him based on who he is or who I am.”
McCain edges Huckabee
John McCain won the Republican Primary in Missouri, with 194,119 votes (33.0 percent), narrowly beating Mike Huckabee (185,573 votes, 31.5 percent) and Mitt Romney (172,390 votes, 29.3 percent). McCain won the most delegates on Super Tuesday among Republican front-runners, but only has 52 percent of the delegates needed to secure the nomination.
– Additional reporting by Alvin A. Reid
