Across the pond

Photo courtesy Washington Post.

Despite Hillary Clinton’s resounding victory in the West Virginia primary, Barack Obama has now built up an un-beatable lead amongst the pledged delegates voted for in the primaries. And the super-delegates, who were mostly behind Hillary Clinton when the campaign started, have been shifting towards Obama, day by day.

And yesterday John Edwards, threw enthusiastic support behind Obama by appearing on the platform with him in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Said Edwards:

‘”The reason I am here tonight is the voters have made their choice, and so have I.”

Edwards, who was a strong contender himself in this, and the previous two US presidential elections, has strong support amongst those in the Democratic Party most concerned to do something about the lot of the large body of America’s poor, both black and white. Since he dropped out of this year’s Presidential campaign he has torn between his support for Hillary Clinton and his liking for the personality and policies of the newcomer in the contest, Barack Obama.

Yesterday he came off the fence. And his support may prove a great help to Obama is reaching out to the white working class vote, which is where the Clinton’s are strongest.

And yesterday also the Republicans lost a by-election in western Mississipi. It was their worst result in the last three by-elections. The seat gave Bush’s Republicans 60 of their votes in 2004. Yesterday they handed the Democrats an 8 per cent majority.

This was despite a campaign which strongly promoted a new look Republican Party under the new leadership of John McCain. The result demonstrates that McCain is going to have a tough job in convincing the electorate that they should vote for a third Republican President in a row.