Obama’s Convincing Consecutive Victories

U.S. Senator Barack Obama, who dreams of becoming the first black U.S. president in the November presidential election, has been running high in the Democratic primaries.

Obama`s string of victories since “Super Tuesday” in early February has given him an edge in the contest with Clinton for the party’s nomination.

The charismatic senator from Illinois has dominated the East, West, Midwest, and even the South. Regardless of the region, Obama has accelerated his momentum to win the party nomination by winning ten consecutive primaries and caucuses.

In contrast, the result of the Wisconsin primary was a major disappointment for the senator from New York, who has been trying to restore momentum to her campaign.

Clinton made every effort to draw up support in Wisconsin, which has a strong population of white working-class and middle-income people. Despite all the hard work, she was decisively beat by Obama by a margin of 17 percentage points.

▽ Backed by white and blue-collar workers

Survey results from the Wisconsin exit polls on Tuesday showed Obama’s winning streak is not just luck.

According to a CNN poll, Wisconsin was a major victory for Obama, eating into Clinton’s support base of white voters. Obama beat Clinton 54-41. In particular, Obama garnered as much as 63 percent of the white male voters, leading Clinton by 34 percent.

Clinton’s other support group -- working-class Democrats -- also rallied behind Obama with 53 percent of that vote going to Obama. Clinton won 44 percent.

In the previous Super Tuesday primaries, Clinton tended to do better in the big states of New York, California, and New Jersey, by 6 to 4 over Obama.

By a slight margin, Clinton has been leading Obama among white female voters 52 to 47. However, given that she earlier enjoyed much greater support from white females, this narrower margin has given Clinton enough cause to be concerned about losing this support, as well.

▽ Clinton faces uphill battles

Although Clinton has been defeated in relatively small-scale primaries in recent days, Obama’s ten consecutive wins have put greater pressure on the Clinton camp.

Analysts say Clinton’s credibility will be put to a crucial test as the candidate needs to beat Obama by at least two digit margins in Ohio (141 delegates) and Texas (193) on Mar. 4, and in Pennsylvania (158) on Apr. 22.

The gap in the number of secured delegates between the two Democratic candidates began to widen since the “Potomac Primaries” were held in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. on Feb. 12. According to major polling agencies, Obama is leading Clinton by between 60 and 120 delegates.

triplets@donga.com