Obama edges Clinton in Guam caucuses

Well, when every delegate counts, the Guam caucuses garner a little more attention than they ever have before. The Obama campaign actually opened an office on the island — a first for a U.S. presidential campaign — and both sides had aides on site.

Obama ended up with the win, but by a tenth of a percentage point.

Barack Obama defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton by seven votes in the Guam Democratic presidential caucuses Saturday. The count of more than 4,500 ballots took all night.

Neither candidate campaigned in the U.S. island territory in person, but both did long-distance media interviews and bought campaign ads for the caucuses.

Results of the count completed Sunday morning Guam time show delegates pledged to Obama with 2,264 votes to 2,257 for Clinton’s slate. That means they’ll split the pledged delegate votes. Obama’s slate won in 14 of 21 districts.

Eight pledged delegates will attend the convention, each with one-half vote.

Guam will also have five superdelegates, two of which were picked today (one supports Clinton, the other Obama).

It’s hard to argue that today’s result will matter too much here; there just weren’t that many delegates at stake, and it’s pretty silly to think Obama’s narrow victory will matter to voters stateside.

But for the Obama camp, I suppose a win is a win — even if it’s a tie, as far as the delegates go.

I thought both Supers chosen today were for Obama; one had pre-endorsed, the other pledged to endorse the winner of the caucus popular vote.

  • Guam’s districts have spoken resoundingly, so I suggest we call it a day for the primary season, and go with Guam.

    Even if Hillary did very nearly win a caucus.

    More seriously, I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that they can’t reach a definitive decision any better than the rest of us.

  • So Obama won, but HRC gets half the delegates. If it’s the delegates that matter, wouldn’t this be a tie?

    But if the popular vote counts, Obama wins by (last I heard) 7 votes out of about 5K. Thats .14% point 14 percent!

    Regardless of who we support, let’s be honest. When citing polls make sure the margin of error is published along side. Most recent polls show statistically insignificant differences, nationally, between HRC and Obama .
    It is dishonest to say Obama (or Clinton) has a 2 percent advantage according to poll X if the margin of error is 3 percent or more.

    Can the blogosphere be better than MSM? I would hope so, but it’s not a given.

  • Another day.
    Another primary.
    Another loss.
    When you are behind by that much this late in the game second place is another small death.
    Plus she is running out of track and running towards a dead end.
    Kinda funny. Kinda lame. Kinda Clinton.

  • It should be noted that over 500 ballots were deemed “spoiled” and thus not counted in the Dededo district, an area where Clinton won 61% of the votes. The Guam Democrats have already announced their intent to review those 500 ballots prior to officially certifying the results, and may order a complete recount.

  • Today is the victory of Guam, let us pray for tommorow to be a victory for us all.
    North Carolina, Indiana your victory will be on 06 May 2008, when ye lift your voice on high for Obama. Glory be to our Father in Heaven for he so loves the world that he has sent his savior (Obama) Peace is at hand. Pray that we hold tight unto it.

  • But for the Obama camp, I suppose a win is a win […] — CB

    Well, no; not really. A 7 votes difference, out of 4.5K cast, is hardly something to brag about, unless an entire election hangs on a single vote (a la “First Among Equals”, by Jeffrey Archer). Add in the fact that Obama has been doing much better in caucus-style primaries and the tie (delegate-wise) is almost an embarrassment.

    Dave, @1,
    No. According to the NYT, among the supers: the head of the delegation is uncommitted, the vice-head is for Obama, and, of the remaining 3, one is for Clinton and two are uncommitted. I don’t remember whether the Guam supers get a full “voice” at the Convention or just half of one, like the pledgies. Yeah, after all that effort… In pledged delegates, Clinton’s got one full vote and Obama’s got one full vote. Whoop- tee-doo.

    OTOH… Saturday’s count of (non-Guam) supers coming out of the woodwork is Obama: 3, Clinton: 1. Knocking on wood, he’s catching up even on that score.

  • Holly cow! Never mind Guam’s primaries… A Dem — of a strange name I can’t keep straight in my mind… Caizeux? — has won a seat in the House, in a squeaker (49 to 46), in a true-red (R+7, according to Electoral Vote website) district of Louisiana… Hopefully, a sign of things to come.

  • A Dem — of a strange name I can’t keep straight in my mind… Caizeux? — has won a seat in the House, in a squeaker (49 to 46), in a true-red (R+7, according to Electoral Vote website) district of Louisiana… Hopefully, a sign of things to come.

    Cazayoux. That’s not a strange name; that’s a Cajun name, girl. That district’s been held by a Republican for more than 30 years. Interesting stuff, especially because his opponent tied him to Obama in ads, and apparently even this reddest of districts decided that was a good thing.

    I am so relieved that Obama won Guam by seven votes rather than the reverse happening, so we’re spared Howard Wolfson’s inimitably crafted press statements on how seven extra votes definitely demonstrates huge mo for Clinton and a game-changing moment blah blah blah.

  • I fully expect a demand for a recount to start on Monday (if not sooner).

    Spin, spin, spin. It doesn’t count. Meaningless votes. Stupid latte drinking Guamanics.

  • Two quotes from a yahoo story on this primary:

    1: “The count of more than 4,500 ballots took all night.”

    Why does it take all night to count 4500 ballots?

    2: “All-day voting Saturday had people lining up at 21 caucus sites around the U.S. territorial island…”

    All day voting. 21 sites. But only 4500 ballots. And these take all night to count?

    What am I missing here?
    There’s 170,000 people on Guam… but only 4500 voted?
    In the hottest presidential primary in memory?

    Something smells fishy here…

  • ROTFL, that definitely seems like fuzzy math to me. It will be interesting to see if anything is picked up on it.

    I am not going to hold my breath.

    Are IN and NC both all electronic voting machine states, do you know?

    Those things are one more nail in the coffin of democracy…which is already on its death bed.

  • Cazayoux. That’s not a strange name; that’s a Cajun name, girl. — Maria, @12

    My maiden name was Przybyl (that final l was “crossed”, too, which made it into a sound like “w”). Care to try and pronounce it, much less remember it? To this day (35yrs after the fact), my husband claims the main reason he married me was to get my surname to resemble something “normal”. And, a boss I had before I got married, used to say that he had to set a separate day to write my paycheck; to him, it looked as if a drunk got hold of an alphabet and threw it against a wall.

    For me, English and French names look just like that, too… 🙂 And this guy especially. His name, to me, is like playing Scrabble, where you hold a “z” and an “x” (both high value letters) in the last round and are trying to place them on double and triple squares. Still… He got those funny letters on the right squares… and won. Which is all that counts 🙂

    An interesting tid-bit, in regards to that race, surfaced somewhere (NYT?). Each party poured over a million dollars into the race… Seems to me, not so long ago, that was the kind of money that got plowed into *presidential* races, in general election. Proof positive (if I needed more, which I don’t, buying so many books from Europe) how devalued our dollar has become…

    Why does it take all night to count 4500 ballots? — ROTFLetc, @ 14

    Because the public education in Guam stinks on ice? But, seriously… For the past 18months or so, I’ve been working at the polls (various local elections, primaries for the same, then the presidential primaries). We assume (pray, hold your fingers crossed and check periodically) that the machines — where the majority of people do their voting– function properly. But the absentee/early votes are counted by hand. The one time I was on the absentee “squad”, we had 17 votes — seventeen!!! — and it took us an hour and a half to count them in accordance with all the rules.

    It was local elections and there were some 6 candidates for various functions. There were 3 of us on the “squad”: the captain (Dem, because our Governor is Dem) and two minions (on from each party). Each absentee ballot came (or was supposed to come) in two envelopes. Each of the envelopes had to have certain info on it. Each of us had to agree that the first and then the second envelope could be opened. Then, each of us had to agree that the ballot was filled properly. That was the first step, which allowed for the ballot to be counted.

    Then, each of us went over each ballot, and tallied the votes. For each of the 6 candidates, separately. Then, we made sure that our individual tallies matched, for every candidate, with the other two tallies. If they didn’t (ie one of us challenged someone else’s math), we went over the ballots again — each one of us separately first and trying to reconcile the tallies second. It was *crazy*. But, the chances of there being a screw-up in the counting process must have been less than zero 🙂 And then we had sign our names to an oath certifying the results and seal the ballots in two different envelopes, which were sent on (by courier) to the registrar, in case there were challenges, like Donald, @7, is talking about, which needed to be resolved.

    In the meantime, nobody can go home (even a quick leak is viewed with suspicion, never mind going out for a smoke), until the absentee precinct finishes counting… The presidential primaries, I wasn’t on the absentee team but, once I knew there were over 50 votes there, I called my husband to tell him not to wait supper for me; I was unlikely to get home much before 23:00, even though the polls closed at 19:00 (and the absentee team starts counting at 17:30; after the last run to collect mail from the PO)

    I’m sure that each state/territory/locality deals with their problems differently. But I’m not surprised to hear that 4.5K votes — especially *caucus* ones — needed 12 hrs to be counted and the counts reconciled enough to be announced.

  • all indiana and north carolina voters need to do this weekend is pick up a copy of GLOBE in your local grocery or gas station and read the latest hilary closet secrets.
    most undecided voters at this point will make the right decision as to who should be our next president…

  • indiana and north carolina voters need to buy a copy of GLOBE this weekend and read the full story about hilarys closest guarded closet secret..
    the news is being supressed from the news networks until after tuesdays primary by the clinton campaign folks…

  • MY FELLOW “BITTER”, STUPID, WORKING CLASS PEOPLE 🙂

    If you think like Barack Obama, that WORKING CLASS PEOPLE are just a bunch of “BITTER”!, STUPID, PEASANTS, Cash COWS!, and CANNON FODDER. 🙁

    You Might Be An Idiot! 🙂

    If you think Barack Obama with little or no experience would be better than Hillary Clinton with 35 years experience.

    You Might Be An Idiot! 🙂

    If you think that Obama with no experience can fix an economy on the verge of collapse better than Hillary Clinton. Whose 😉 husband (Bill Clinton) led the greatest economic expansion, and prosperity in American history.

    You Might Be An Idiot! 🙂

    If you think that Obama with no experience fighting for universal health care can get it for you better than Hillary Clinton. Who anticipated this current health care crisis back in 1993, and fought a pitched battle against overwhelming odds to get universal health care for all the American people.

    You Might Be An Idiot! 🙂

    If you think that Obama with no experience can manage, and get us out of two wars better than Hillary Clinton. Whose 😉 husband (Bill Clinton) went to war only when he was convinced that he absolutely had to. Then completed the mission in record time against a nuclear power. AND DID NOT LOSE THE LIFE OF A SINGLE AMERICAN SOLDIER. NOT ONE!

    You Might Be An Idiot! 🙂

    If you think that Obama with no experience saving the environment is better than Hillary Clinton. Whose 😉 husband (Bill Clinton) left office with the greatest amount of environmental cleanup, and protections in American history.

    You Might Be An Idiot! 🙂

    If you think that Obama with little or no education experience is better than Hillary Clinton. Whose 😉 husband (Bill Clinton) made higher education affordable for every American. And created higher job demand and starting salary’s than they had ever been before or since.

    You Might Be An Idiot! 🙂

    If you think that Obama with no experience will be better than Hillary Clinton who spent 8 years at the right hand of President Bill Clinton. Who is already on record as one of the greatest Presidents in American history.

    You Might Be An Idiot! 🙂

    If you think that you can change the way Washington works with pretty speeches from Obama, rather than with the experience, and political expertise of two master politicians ON YOUR SIDE like Hillary and Bill Clinton..

    You Might Be An Idiot! 🙂

    If you think all those Republicans voting for Obama in the Democratic primaries, and caucuses are doing so because they think he is a stronger Democratic candidate than Hillary Clinton. 🙂

    Best regards

    jacksmith… Working Class 🙂

    p.s. You Might Be An Idiot! 🙂

    If you don’t know that the huge amounts of money funding the Obama campaign to try and defeat Hillary Clinton is coming in from the insurance, and medical industry, that has been ripping you off, and killing you and your children. And denying you, and your loved ones the life saving medical care you needed. All just so they can make more huge immoral profits for them-selves off of your suffering…

    You see, back in 1993 Hillary Clinton had the audacity, and nerve to try and get quality, affordable universal health care for everyone to prevent the suffering and needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of you each year. 🙂

    Approx. 100,000 of you die each year from medical accidents from a rush to profit by the insurance, and medical industry. Another 120,000 of you die each year from treatable illness that people in other developed countries don’t die from. And I could go on, and on…

    OBAMA AIDE: “WORKING-CLASS VOTERS NOT KEY FOR DEMOCRATS” 😮

    DEBATE! DEBATE!! DEBATE!!!…

  • DEBATE! DEBATE!! DEBATE!!!

    It’s time for everyone to face the truth. Barack Obama has no real chance of winning the national election in November at this time. His crushing defeat in Pennsylvania makes that fact crystal clear. His best, and only real chance of winning in November is on a ticket with Hillary Clinton as her VP.

    Hillary Clinton seemed almost somber at her Pennsylvania victory speech. As if part of her was hoping Obama could have proved he had some chance of winning against the republican attack machine, and their unlimited money, and resources.

    But it is absolutely essential that the democrats take back the Whitehouse in November. America, and the American people are in a very desperate condition now. And the whole World has been doing all that they can to help keep us propped up.

    Hillary Clinton say’s that the heat, and decisions in the Whitehouse are much tougher than the ones on the campaign trail. But I think Mr. Obama faces a test of whether he has what it takes to be a commander and chief by facing the difficult facts, and the truth before him. And by doing what is best for the American people by dropping out of the race, and offering his whole hearted assistance to Hillary Clinton to help her take back the Whitehouse for the American people, and the World.

    Mr. Obama is a great speaker. And I am confident he can explain to the American people the need, and wisdom of such a personal sacrifice for them. It should be clear to everyone by now that Hillary Clinton is fighting her heart out for the American people. She has known for a long time that Mr. Obama can not win this November. You have to remember that the Clinton’s have won the Whitehouse twice before. They know what it takes.

    If Mr. Obama fails his test of commander and chief we can only hope that Hillary Clinton can continue her heroic fight for the American people. And that she prevails. She will need all the continual support and help we can give her. She may fight like a superhuman. But she is only human.

    Sen. Hillary Clinton: “You know, more people have now voted for me than have voted for my opponent. In fact, I now have more votes than anybody has ever had in a primary contest for a nomination. And it’s also clear that we’ve got nine more important contests to go.”

    Sincerely

    Jacksmith… Working Class 🙂

  • I have a problem with the Guamian candidates promises to their own people. In the end it just proves that to win you just have to tell people what they want to hear, as idiotic as what you say sounds. Last I heard, only the 50 states were allowed the vote. To change this would be an incredible if not miraculous acheivement. And this talk about war reparations, heck why not we have been in the “poor me, I deserve money too” mode for years! I wonder, are these people actually expecting candy to rain down on them as if it’s a 6th grade school presidential election? Not only do I feel sorry for them if they do but its amazing that someone has the stupidity or also the naivety to beleive they can make it happen.

  • I knew someone with the surname “Przybylski”, so I’ll guess that “Przybyl ” is pronounced somewhere in between prijh-BILL and prijh-BIW.

  • libra: it looked as if a drunk got hold of an alphabet and threw it against a wall.

    LOL! Thanks for the smile this a.m.

  • Hey ! Hillary supporters if she had won Guam you all and Hillary would be jumping up & down and saying “we won even if it is just by 7 votes” she did not win so “SIT DOWN” !!

  • Wonder why CNN ETC. ETC, does not discuss go to : paulvclinton.com
    I was shocked !!!!!!!!!!!!!! they are very deceitful (the Clintons)

  • The tabloids have been running ugly stories about both candidates for months. The ones about Obama were about his supposed affairs and Michelle’s heartbreak, and I even saw one about a man who claims to have had an affair with Obama. So, if you want to argue that the current Clinton lesbian story (an old old Republican saw) is true, there is a lot more out there unfavorable to your candidate too.

    The “mo” is coming from the polls, not Guam. Is the disparity between population and number of votes because so many people there are military who vote absentee in their home districts? Since neither candidate campaigned in Guam, one might argue that it is like FL and MI, largely reflecting the deadlock that is characteristic of the nation as a whole in this race.

    Edwards will not be Obama’s running mate. He doesn’t like Obama. If Elizabeth Edwards didn’t hate Hillary, he might have endorsed Clinton. But, it is worth pointing out again that Obama could have ended this months ago by agreeing to be Clinton’s running mate. He is the one who is prolonging this and supposedly damaging the party and giving McCain a free pass for so many months (something Rachel Maddow keeps moaning about). But, he is apparently incapable of taking one for the team — that arrogance again.

  • What motivates a winner who won’t get behind the loser for the good of the party? Sheer arrogance, narcissism and too-big-for-his-britches syndrome, along with a healthy dose of misogyny. If Mr. Uppity really cared about changing the way business in done in Washington, he’d sacrifice his win for the greater good of a woman in the White House. If Senator Clinton had been in first place in pledged delegates, states won and votes for months now, you’d better believe the men of this country would be demanding she drop out and become Senator Smooth Talkin’s VP.

    It’s pure sexism — which, by the way, has always been Elizabeth Edwards’ problem — that prevents so-called Democrats from calling for Obama to give up and get in line behind Senator Clinton. Unlike Mr. Still in Diapers, she has earned the right to run for president and has run a tenacious and resilient campaign that proves how firmly and resolutely she would govern. But that’s black people — they always want an undeserved handout, in this case the presidency.

  • I don’t anything about Hillary being a Lesbian nor do I care!! the paulvclinton.com
    site is about the Clintons being sued BIG TIME the court papers are on this site. and some entertainers are witnesses/involved ck it out for yourself !!

  • From my discussions with Guamanians (Guamese?) (Chamorros!), it’s amazing that Obama won here, even by this small margin. Bill Clinton made a famous visit to Guam in 1998, and Hillary visited Guam in 1995. I’ve been told that Guam is (or was) pretty overwhelmingly made up of Clinton supporters. (But there is an anti-Clinton faction that was born years ago because some legislation which favored Guamian autonomy did not make it through Congress under Clinton — so I’m told.) Clinton was supported by Guam’s largest union, which was expected to be a boon to her in the primary. I guess not so much.

  • Comments are closed.