Obama Wins MoveOn Primary

Just before Super Tuesday, Sen. Barack Obama wins the MoveOn.org primary over Sen. Hillary Clinton.

MoveOn.org has over 3.2 million members who are politically active and donate and work for liberal causes. It is likely this may lead to another surge of online donations for Obama, who had a record breaking surge of over $30 million dollars in donations in January.

MoveOn.org is also likely to provide a virtual phone-bank for the candidate. MoveOn used its software script to have its member make over 7 million Get Out The Vote calls for Democrats in 2006.

In a statement the progressive MoveOn says that Obama received over 70% of the online vote to Clinton's 30%.

Today's endorsement is the first time MoveOn.org has endorsed a candidate for President in the Democratic primary. Over the past year, MoveOn surveyed a rotating sample of 30,000 members each week to determine their membership's preference in the Democratic presidential primary. For months, MoveOn members were divided among many candidates -- as many waited to see who would take bold progressive positions on the issues. As the primary race has gained momentum, the polling showed a consensus forming and, with Senator John Edward's withdrawal from the race, members made their decision in favor of Senator Obama. The vote took place from Thursday, January 31st to Friday, February 1st.

UPDATE: With Texas now playing an important role in the nominations, Barack Obama trails Hillary Clinton 48 to 38. This is a very large surge over the last couple weeks for Obama.

BTW, Krugman has another article on Edwards' ideas as the winner.

Tags: primaries, Clinton, Obama, MoveOn.org, progressive, liberal, 2008