Clinton hopes to woo remaining superdelegates

She is expected to clinch an easy win in West Virginia

A measure of the certainty of the result in Clinton's favour could be gauged from her rival and frontrunner Barack Obama's remarks in which he admitted he had poor prospects in West Virginia.

"She is going to do very well in West Virginia and Kentucky. She will win those states, in all likelihood, by significant margins," Obama said.

 

While her thumping win in this primary may not turn the tables, Clinton would be hoping to send a strong message to the Democratic party elders and remaining superdelegates through it. The 47-year-old Obama eclipsed Clinton, 60, earlier this week in the number of superdelegates as well registering 275 of them by his side to Clinton's 271.

Putting 28 delegates and 11 supersdelegates on stake, the West Virginia primary may not bother Obama much for he has an almost insurmountable lead of about 160-odd delegates over Clinton.

However, what is of real importance could be the fact that no Democrat has been elected to the White House without carrying West Virginia since 1916. Hence it would be difficult for the Illinois Senator to overlook the state in November showdown.

Also, polls showed that the former first lady would beat the presumptive Republican nominee Senator John McCain narrowly in West Virginia whereas Senator Obama would lose the state by 20 percentage points.

But thanks to his comfortable lead in delegate count, Obama was increasingly looking like a presumptive Democratic nominee much ahead of the party convention this August in Denver.

The African-American Senator virtually sealed his new found status with a thumping win in the Tar Heel State and came very close to beating Clinton in Indiana.

The proportional delegate splitting meant that the Illinois Democrat walked off with a rich crop of delegates after these two contests last week.

The only thing that Senator Clinton hopes to get from her expected landslide is the reiteration of an old argument that Obama is weak with white and blue-collar voters.

Other than this, the New York Democrat stands no chance of overcoming what is now considered an insurmountable lead of Obama.

One tally shows Obama with 1860 total delegates to Clinton's 1696.

The mathematics of remaining primaries are such that Clinton needs to have a solid win