Feel the Uncommittment at politburo diktat 2.0

Feel the Uncommittment

Michigan’s Ominous Message for Hillary Clinton

The question in Tuesday’s Michigan Democratic primary was not whether Hillary Clinton could beat anybody.

The question was whether Clinton could beat nobody.

As the only leading Democratic contender to keep her name on the ballot after Michigan officials moved their primary ahead of the opening date scheduled by the Democratic National Committee, Clinton was perfectly positioned. She had no serious opposition. She also had the strong support of top Michigan Democrats such as Governor Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow.

Usually, a prominent presidential contender running a primary campaign without serious opposition and with strong in-state support from party leaders can count on winning 90 percent or more of the vote. That’s how it went for George Bush when he was running without serious opposition in Republican primaries in 2004, and for Bill Clinton when he was essentially unopposed in the Democratic primaries in 1996.

But Hillary Clinton got nowhere near 90 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s Michigan primary.

With most of the ballots counted, the New York senator was winning uninspiring 55 percent of the Democratic primary vote.

A remarkable 40 percent of Michiganders who participated in the primary voted for nobody, marking the “Uncommitted” option on their ballots.

CNN calls it Potentially troubling news for Clinton in Michigan ‘win’

Hillary Clinton faced a grim statistic in Michigan tonight, despite her primary “win” there: results revealed that she may have reason to worry about her grasp on the African-American vote.

Ben Smith looks at African-Americans in Michigan

If the election keeps trending this way, Clinton will be forced to push very hard to run up the score in the non-black communities, most of all in New York, but also in several other Feb. 5 states.

ALSO: Here’s some more detail from CNN: 23 percent of Democratic Primary voters were black, and the sample size was about 1000 total, so more than 200 Michigan African-Americans were sampled.

Ed Morrissey calls it Hillary’s Flat Tire

It’s a minor debacle. Running practically unopposed, Hillary should have rolled to an easy and large victory. Beating None of the Above by only fifteen points doesn’t create a picture of a juggernaut.

I’d also point out that Uncommitted did very well among the youth vote, notably Washtenaw County, Ann Arbor, home of University of Michigan.