Text size:

Obama wins Mississippi, sets sights on Pennsylvania

BY MARK HARRINGTON | mark.harrington@newsday.com

March 12, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - Barack Obama put a Mississippi victory in his back pocket last night, taking a state where he was heavily favored, as he prepared to launch a six-week sprint to the Pennsylvania primary.

Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday wasted no time pummeling his record on energy and Iraq.

Obama rode a wave of African-American support to win Mississippi, where exit polls showed nine of every 10 black voters supported him. (Clinton was largely favored by white voters.)

With 76 percent of precincts reporting last night, Obama had 59 percent of the vote to Clinton's 39 percent.

Obama, in a statement, said he was "grateful to the people of Mississippi," while Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams congratulated Obama for his win, adding, "Now we look forward to campaigning in Pennsylvania," where Clinton leads in the polls.

In that state, the Obama camp spent much of yesterday crying foul over statements by Geraldine Ferraro, the former Queens congresswoman and Clinton supporter, who questioned the substance of Obama's popularity in a newspaper interview published Friday.

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," said Ferraro, who serves on Clinton's finance committee and ran unsuccessfully 24 years ago as Walter Mondale's vice presidential candidate. "If he was a woman [of any color] he would not be in this position."

Pressed by the Obama camp to repudiate the remarks, Clinton yesterday said: "I do not agree with that. It is regrettable that any of our supporters, on both sides - because we've both had that experience - say things that kind of veer off into the personal."

The Obama camp said her statement didn't go far enough.

"With Senator Clinton's refusal to denounce or reject Ms. Ferraro, she has once again proven that her campaign gets to live by its own rules and its own double standard," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.

The Ferraro comments, following the resignation last week of a top Obama adviser who called Clinton a "monster," robbed some thunder from the start of Clinton's campaign in Harrisburg.

There, to a crowd of some 2,000, Clinton took aim at Obama's record on energy, the Iraq war pullout and his allegedly shifting positions on the North American Free Trade Agreement.

She noted that Obama, in a speech at a wind turbine factory near here, was addressing energy policy, then blasted him for voting for " Dick Cheney's energy bill loaded with new tax breaks for oil companies."

Obama, on CNN, said he's been measured in criticizing Clinton and he's not sure she's been so restrained. Still, he said the stakes are so high that Democrats will rally behind the nominee.

This story was supplemented with wire service reports.

YESTERDAY'S VOTE

Democratic results as of 11:30 p.m. yesterday.

Barack Obama Hillary Clinton

Mississippi (33 delegates) 59% 39%

DEMOCRATS' DELEGATE SCORECARD

Total delegates at stake: 4,049 Total needed to nominate: 2,025

Previous total Won yesterday Other/super-delegates Total

Barack Obama 1,579 17 211 1,807

Hillary Clinton 1,473 11 247 1,731