http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05/17/obama-picks-up-delegates-in-3-states/
Obama Picks Up Delegates in 3 States
Saturday, May 17, 2008
WA****NGTON — Sen. Barack Obama inched closer to securing the
Democratic presidential nomination with delegate pickups in Nevada,
Kansas and Maryland.
In Nevada, Obama stole a delegate from rival Hillary Rodham Clinton by
drawing more sup****ters at the state Democratic convention Saturday.
A vote of more than 2,500 convention delegates broke 55-45 percent in
Obama’s favor, giving Obama 14 of Nevada’s 25 pledged delegates to the
National Democratic Convention in Denver this summer to Clinton’s 11.
The ****ft is a gain of one pledged delegate for Obama over the split
calculated after the state’s January caucuses.
Although Clinton won the sup****t of 51 percent of the caucus-goers in
January, under the complicated system of awarding delegates Obama was
put on track to winning 13 delegates to Clinton’s 12.
Nevada Democrats were also scheduled to select an additional
unpledged, or “add-on,” delegate later in the day.
In an attempt to draw sup****ters, the Clinton campaign sent the New
York senator’s most popular surrogate to speak on her behalf, former
President Clinton.
Faced with a vocal crowd of Obama backers, Bill Clinton all but
abandoned typical campaign rhetoric. He mentioned his wife’s candidacy
only briefly, and instead focused his comments on a call for party
unity against the Republicans in November.
“Don’t you forget why you came here. You did not go to all this
trouble to have an argument with each other,” Clinton said. “The
argument is necessary so we can pick the best president and the most
electable one. Those are the only two things that matter … After that,
we have to get the show on the road, folks. We have a country to
change and a future to secure.”
Kansas Democrats also held their state convention Saturday, selecting
Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson as an add-on delegate. He endorsed Obama in
February.
Obama also won the endorsement of a Maryland superdelegate Saturday.
Superdelegates are the elected officials and party leaders who are
automatic delegates to the national convention due to their positions.
Greg Pecoraro, a city council member in Westminster, Md., praised
Clinton, but called Obama “the right leader for our time.”
“I strongly believe that Senator Obama offers us the best op****tunity
we have had for many years to turn away from the politics of division
and despair, and look toward an America of op****tunity and progress,”
Pecoraro said in a statement released by the Obama campaign.
The pickup brings Obama’s delegate total to 1,907 to Clinton’s 1,718.
The number needed to secure the nomination is 2,026.
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