Pete suggests

Email registration

Free weekly email update

Great products and special offers for Spectator readers

Click here for great value events

Click here for exclusive articles, offers, tasting notes and discussion

Half of those who voted in the Democratic primary in Mississippi don't trust Hillary

James Forsyth

Wednesday, 12th March 2008

Just how bitter this Democratic race has got is demonstrated by the fact that 50 percent of those voting in the Mississippi primary yesterday thought that Hillary Clinton is not honest or trustworthy. The exit poll contained lots of other worrying data for Democrats: 30 percent would be dissatisfied with Obama as the nominee and 41 percent with Clinton, Obama only received 26 percent of the white vote while Hillary got a mere 8 percent of black votes.

Considering Mississippi’s history, it is fairly unsurprising that the primary was so racially polarised. But with both camps accusing the other of playing the race card, there is a real danger that the whole process becomes polarised.

The other thing that should worry the Democrats is that there is no end in sight to this contest. It looks like Hilary will win in Pennsylvania, which is what she needs to do to carry on. But even if he does Obama will be comfortably ahead in delegates.

Obama’s insurmountable delegate lead has made the popular vote tally all the more important: if Hillary has won more votes than Obama she has something with which to reassure super delegates who are reluctant to use extra-democratic means to deny the potential first black president the nomination. Getting an accurate sense of the popular vote split, though, might have to wait until after Florida and Michigan have voted again—eg June. Whether the party can survive another 12 weeks of this is becoming increasingly debateable.