McCain gets Republican nomination

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) officially won the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night after four different state primaries.

Primaries were held Tuesday night in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont.

McCain gained 106 delegates for a total of 1,195 on Tuesday, according to CNN.com. He needed 1,191 delegates to secure the Republican nomination.

Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, did not receive any additional delegates. As a result, Huckabee announced that he would end his campaign.

Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) defeated Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) in Rhode Island, Ohio and Texas. Obama won the delegates from Vermont.

Abbey DiPlacido, the president of SU's College Democrats and a junior English education and English and textual studies major, said that Tuesday's primaries were important because of the closeness of the race between Clinton and Obama.

"Texas and Ohio are really important battleground states," she said.

Although Obama led Clinton by 121 pledged delegates after Tuesday's primaries, DiPlacido does not think the primaries will put an end to either candidate's campaign.

"I don't think the Democratic race will be over for a while now," she said. "I don't think we'll get a clear nominee until well after the remaining primaries are over."

Vinny Napolitano, the executive director of SU's College Republicans, emphasized the importance of Tuesday's primaries in deciding the nominees for both parties.

"If John McCain is able to win by big enough margins, and he's expected to win all four states, he can clinch the nomination and unite the Republican party under him," the senior political science, American history and political philosophy major predicted Monday.

Napolitano, who is a columnist for The Daily Orange, said Senator Hillary Clinton will probably not drop out of the race, despite Obama leading the race.

"Based on the rhetoric we've been hearing and how hard her husband has been going after the super delegates, Clinton does not look like she will be dropping out," he said.

Katie Baran, a junior advertising major, said that she didn't think Clinton would drop out despite being behind.

"I don't know about Hillary. She doesn't really seem to go away," Baran said.

Grace Demchak, a senior interior design major and Obama supporter, thinks the democratic race will go well beyond Tuesday's primaries.

"Although I would love it if Hillary Clinton dropped out of the race… I think she is too headstrong to do it right away," Demchak said. "I think she will wait it out as long as she can."

The close delegate counts between Obama and Clinton have led some pundits to predict that the Democratic nominee will be decided by the super delegates, who do not have to indicate a preference for a candidate like pledged delegates do prior to the Democratic National Convention in August.

Scott Lomando, a junior newspaper and psychology major, is studying abroad in London but still following the election. He does not think that Tuesday's results will determine the overall election.

"Obama's been really growing into his campaign recently," he said in an email interview.

"As his momentum builds more and more super delegates are going his way," Lomando said. "If I had to pick, I'd say it is going to come down to the DNC (Democratic National Convention) in August and the number of super delegates the candidates can amass, which is a shame because I think that's definitely going to hurt the eventual nominee, be it Clinton or Obama against Senator McCain."

DiPlacido, of the College Democrats, said that both Democrats still have a chance of winning the nomination, regardless of Tuesday's results.

"I don't think it's worthwhile for either candidate to throw in the towel yet," she said. "It's not over until it's over."

naloring@syr.edu