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Clinton wins Puerto Rico; Obama is unfazed in South Dakota

3:06 pm June 1st, 2008 by Devon · 2 Comments

CNN is projecting a big win for Hillary Clinton in today’s Puerto Rico primary. With 57% reporting, Clinton has 68% of the vote to Barack Obama’s 32%. Out of 55 delegates up for grabs, CNN has so far assigned 10 to Clinton and 4 to Obama.

CNN also reports that a landslide victory in Puerto Rico could have pushed Clinton ahead in the popular vote and helped her case with undecided superdelegates. She would have needed at least 65% of the vote with a turnout of about 2 million, but it is estimated that less than 500,000 votes were cast.

Meanwhile, Obama is in South Dakota today preparing for the state’s June 3 primary. His comments about Clinton made it clear that he is unfazed by her win in Puerto Rico:

At a campaign stop in Mitchell, South Dakota, Obama congratulated Clinton for her win Sunday and praised her for being an “outstanding public servant.”

“She is going to be a great asset when we go into November to make sure that we defeat the Republicans,” he said.

Kos has commented on the fact that Clinton is spending Monday night in New York, which suggests that she’ll also spend Tuesday night - the last primary day - in her home state.

As Al Giordano notes, candidates suspend their elections at home. I don’t know if we’ll be that lucky, but it is curious that Clinton isn’t spending the last few days campaigning in the last two primary states. It would suggest that she’s given up on winning either Montana or South Dakota — there aren’t enough popular votes or delegates in those two last states to make a material impact on the Clintons’ final argument — that the super delegates should overturn the will of the voters and spark an intra-party civil war just because some polls suggest she runs slightly better.

If she was leading in either states, she’d be working overtime to prevent Obama from wrapping up the election with two solid victories.

Hmm, curious indeed. Perhaps Clinton will now rely solely on superdelegates to help her win the nomination. Yesterday, the DNC Rules and Bylaws committee awarded 87 delegates to Clinton and 63 to Obama - not quite the result she wanted from Michigan and Florida, and one that only helped push Obama closer to the nomination.

Or perhaps Clinton will bow out Tuesday night. She will have done what she wanted to do - finish the race and let every state have a say in the outcome.

June 3, here we come.

Tags: Barack Obama · Democrat · Hillary Clinton · Primary · Puerto Rico · blogosphere news

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