NEWS FLASH: The votes are now in from the Democratic caucuses in Guam. Normally political junkies — and candidates — wouldn’t wait for these results with bated breath…but given the closeness of the battle between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the 2008 Presidential nomination this year, they have be doing just that. And then there is the ongoing p.r. battle over expectations.
The result was a squeaker, with Obama winning by 7 votes:
Even the Kentucky Derby wasn’t this close. In the strangest of circumstances that could only bring about the closest of races, Hillary Rodham Clinton finished with 49.9% of the vote of the Guam Democratic Caucus, just 7 votes shy of Barack Obama’s total of 50.1%. While Obama led for the vast majority of the night’s tallying, Clinton needed a strong finish in the municipality of Dededo, Guam’s most populous village. And she did – gaining 61% of the 822 votes counted by the Democratic Party of Guam.
Note: these are unofficial, uncertified results as tabulated by the Democratic Party of Guam. The DPG also noted a high number of spoiled ballots in Dededo.
As the New York Times notes, presidential politicking was hot and heavy in Guam this time:
Guam’s caucuses took on added significance this year as the Democrats are locked in a delegate-by-delegate battle. Mr. Obama’s campaign opened an office in Hagatna, the capital, and the two candidates granted interviews to local media. Mrs. Clinton called for giving Guamanians the right to vote for president, while Mr. Obama, who spent part of his youth in Hawaii, stressed his ties to the Pacific Islands.
So what does it mean?
A win is a win — but Obama barely won this one. MSNBC:
Obama appears to have won the Guam caucus by the slimmest of margins — 50.1%-49.9% — over Clinton, report the Guam Pacific Daily News and KUAM-TV.
….Obama appears to have won 14 of 21 districts. There no telling just yet what the delegate breakdown will be. It could be a 2-2 split, but may not necessarily be, since Guam is actually electing half delegates — eight for four.
Not the journalistic hedge…which means this could conceivably change.
Not matter what, this wasn’t a landslide. On the other hand, some Obama supporters think this was a very good day for Obama.
Tuesday will tell…….
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.