The dust has settled on Oregon and Kentucky, and both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama took home a win, as expected. With 88 percent of the votes in Oregon now tabulated, Obama leads 58 percent to 42 percent, with 21 projected delegates to Clinton’s 14. In Kentucky, where all precincts have reported, Clinton walloped Obama 65 percent to 30 percent, earning 37 delegates to his 14. Obama chose not to declare the race over, as was speculated previously, during his victory speech in Iowa. “The skeptics predicted we wouldn’t get very far,” he told the crowd assembled last night. “The cynics dismissed us as a lot of hype and a little too much hope. And by the fall, the pundits in Washington had all but counted us out. But the people of Iowa had a different idea.” Hillary, for her part, remained optimistic. “You’ve never given up on me, because you know I’ve never given up on you,” she told fans in Kentucky.
On the Republican side, McCain swept both states but notably lost 15 percent of the vote in Oregon to Ron Paul, and 20 percent of the vote in Kentucky to supporters of Paul and Mike Huckabee, and uncommitted GOP voters.