Clinton coasts to Democratic victory in Michigan, but 'uncommitted' gets 39 percent of tally

[DeepModem Mom]

Detroit News: Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Clinton coasts to Democratic victory
The New York senator captures majority of votes, but 'uncommitted' gets 39 percent of tally.
Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

As expected, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton won the Michigan Democratic primary Tuesday, easily outpolling the "uncommitted" vote, but partisans are quarreling over whether she drew enough support to spare embarrassment.

With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton took 55 percent of the vote to 40 percent for uncommitted, which is essentially a vote for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama or former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who pulled their names off the ballot in deference to party rules and urged their supporters to vote uncommitted.

Clinton was the only major Democrat to remain on the ballot after party leaders punished Michigan for moving up its primary from February and stripping the state of its convention delegates. Even so, Clinton was clobbered among African-American and younger voters, who essentially cast "anyone but her" ballots, according to a National Election Pool exit poll.

"Boy, looking at the subset of Democratic voters who cast ballots today she's got real problems," said Crag Ruff, senior fellow at Public Sector Consultants in Lansing. "Young people, African-Americans, well-educated voters, high income voters, in some of those categories, 50-70 percent voted uncommitted That's a real slap in the face to somebody who didn't have any competition other than none of the above."

Even so, the exit poll revealed that Clinton would have won Michigan had other candidates been on the ballot. But Obama may well regret skipping the race here. The what-if survey showed he would have finished a solid second with 37 percent to Clinton's 45 percent, even among a limited primary electorate that likely attracted more Clinton voters. Edwards would have trailed well behind at 12 percent, according to the poll....

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/POLITICS01/801160417

[Skink]

1. Yet a caucus that disenfranchises many and brings in 10 percent...

of likely voters is supposed to be our guide.

[Maribelle]

2. But "uncommitted" campaigned and Hillary didn't. Hillary is a great shape.

How many millions were spent in the uncommitted campaign?