Obama carries Panama, world in Democrats Abroad primary

Carries Panama, the Americas by margins like he has been running up in US state primaries

Democrats Abroad 2-1 for Barack Obama
by Eric Jackson

He carried Antarctica. He won Outer Mongolia. Burkina Faso and Papua New Guinea voted for him, as did the Americans in Iraq. The Democrats Abroad global primary went Barack Obama's way, 65.6 percent for him to Hillary Clinton's 32.7 percent.

In Panama, it turned out that the people who voted online were not as numerous as anticipated nor quite as lopsidedly pro-Obama as those who put their ballots in the box at the Balboa Elks Club. Still, when all votes were counted, Panama's Democrats went for Obama 79-48.

Obama won across the Americas, with only a few exceptions. The big one was the Dominican Republic, which has a big expatriate community in Hillary Clinton's adopted state of New York and backed Clinton by a 606 to 65 margin. The New York Senator took all three votes from Dominica and the single vote cast in the Bahamas. In Colombia, Clinton and Obama tied at 22, and the two contenders split the two votes coming out of Haiti. When all of the votes from Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean were counted, there were 2,869 for Obama and 2,287 for Clinton.

In the Middle East, Clinton carried Israel 198-157 while Obama won the single vote from the Palestinian Territories. Clinton also took Azerbaijan, Kuwait and Yemen.

In Europe, Clinton and Obama tied in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Clinton won Liechtenstein, but Obama won everywhere else.

Although Obama is the son of an African father, that region was Clinton's best, even though she lost overall there. Hillary won Liberia, Libya, Sierra Leone and Somalia, and tied Obama in Malawi, Mali, Nigeria and Swaziland.

East Asia, Australia and Oceania all voted for Obama. The only places where Hillary did well in that region were the Philippines, where she won 79 to 64; New Caledonia, where she picked up the sole vote; and Macao, where she and Obama tied. Democrats in China, Japan and Australia voted for Obama by marjorities of 79.9, 79.3 and 67.4 percent respectively. Obama won Indonesia, where he spent part of his childhood, with 76.5 percent of the vote and India with 71.1 percent.

The results were announced in the wake of the Wisconsin primary, which Obama won by an unexpectedly large margin, and the Hawaii caucuses, which he won handily as expected. At about the same time the International Brotherhood of Teamsters endorsed Obama, and in the mainstream US media Democrats Abroad was noted as part of the Illinois senator's growing momentum ahead of crucial March 4 showdowns in Texas and Ohio. Hillary Clinton barely stopped that momentum with narrow primary victories in Ohio and Texas and a substantial win in tiny Rhode Island, against Barack Obama's win in the Vermont primary and the Texas caucuses on March 4, then resumed his winning ways with a blowout in the Wyoming caucuses and headed to the next confrontation in Mississippi, where he's also favored.

Democrats Abroad will have 11 votes at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, to be cast by a 22-member delegation whose members will have half a vote each. Eight of these delegates (four votes) are super-delegates, of whom two have declared for Clinton and two for Obama, with four remaining undecided.

From the Democrats Abroad international headquarters in Geneva, Democrats Abroad International Chair Christine Schon Marques issued a statement concluding that "with the US image so badly damaged by the present administration, American Democrats living overseas were eager to have their voices heard." About 22,000 people from 164 countries and territories cast votes in the primary.

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