Senator Barack Obama beat Senator Hillary Clinton in Mississippi's Democratic primary, riding huge support from black Americans, as a nasty new race row rocked their White House battle.
The Illinois senator punched back with his second win in a row since the Clinton's campaign-saving wins in Texas and Ohio last week, which halted his own 12-contest win streak.
Even as Mississippi voted, the tone of the contest took another negative lurch, as the Obama camp demanded the ouster of Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro, who put Obama's stunning rise in US politics down to his race.
With its 33 nominating delegates, conservative, Deep South Mississippi, reliably Republican in general elections, was the last showdown in the Democratic race before the more significant Pennsylvania primary on April 22.
Mississippi did not change the race, but allowed Obama to pad his lead for nominating delegates doled out after each state contest.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting in Mississippi, Obama won 61 percent of the vote compared to 37 percent for Clinton.
Television exit polls showed a large racial divide: half of the Democratic electorate were black Americans, nine in 10 of whom went for Obama, according to MSNBC figures.
Fox News exit polls said white men voted for Clinton 69 to 30 percent, and white women by 74 percent to 26 percent.
According to a tally by RealClearPolitics.com, the Mississippi victory left Obama with 1,606 delegates compared to 1,484 for Clinton -- both well short of the 2,025 necessary to clinch the party's nomination.
The latest racially tinged row of an increasingly ugly campaign raged after Ferraro told a California newspaper: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position."
The first black American with a viable shot at the White House, Obama called the remarks by the woman who made history as the Democrats' 1984 vice presidential candidate "patently absurd."
"I don't think that Geraldine Ferraro's comments have any place in our politics or the Democratic Party," he told Pennsylvania newspaper the Morning Call.
His campaign clamored for Ferraro's head, noting the swift resignation of an Obama aide last week after her remark that Clinton was a "monster."
"When you wink and nod at offensive statements," said Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, "you're really telling your supporters that anything goes."
Clinton said she did "not agree" with the comments and found it "regrettable" that supporters might resort to personal attacks, but did not cut Ferraro loose from her finance committee.
"We ought to keep this focused on the issues. That's what this campaign should be about," she said in Pennsylvania.
In a second interview with the Daily Breeze, which carried her original remarks, Ferraro escalated the row.
"Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says, let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up," she said.
"Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?" she said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
Africa has established the continent’s first space agency to boost Earth observation and data sharing at a time when a more hostile global context is limiting the availability of climate and weather information. The African Space Agency opened its doors last month under the umbrella of the African Union and is headquartered in Cairo. The new organization, which is still being set up and hiring people in key positions, is to coordinate existing national space programs. It aims to improve the continent’s space infrastructure by launching satellites, setting up weather stations and making sure data can be shared across
RSS