State of Play: The End?

Jul 31, 2020201.7K Shares3.1M Views

Exactly five months after the Iowa caucuses, Democrats will hold their final nominating contests today in South Dakota and Montana. Sen. Barack Obama is favored to win both states, but their pledged delegates alone won’t get him to the 2,118 delegates needed to secure the nomination. He’ll need undecided superdelegates to embrace him before he can claim to be the "presumptive nominee." Tuesday morning, Obama was 35 delegates away from the nomination. There are 31 pledged delegates up for grabs today, and some of them are almost certain to go for Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Based on today’s headlines, it looks like many media outlets are ready to call the race over. The AP ran a report that Clinton will concede tonight, but the New York senator’s camp has since denied that story. It’s a turbulent day for the campaign and the headlines show it.

Contest between Clinton and Obama goes on — for now(Los Angeles Times)

Exhaustive Dem primary season draws to close(MSNBC)

After six months, can Democratic race be over?(CNN)

Obama Is Poised To Clinch Victory(Washington Post)

Obama Pushes Effort to Claim Victory Tonight(New York Times)

Some Superdelegates May DeferDecision (Wall Street Journal)