There are two missing precincts — Dakota Dunes and one near Elk Point. With the YES vote leading by about 200, the NO’s will have to be huge near Elk Point. Those in the know are saying that it is the absentee ballots which are slowing things up.
No 1,502 0.53 8/13
Yes 1,326 0.47 8/13
Should be noted that the precincts in the southeast which include Dakota Dunes are in, and they went YES.
No 1,212 0.52 7/13
Yes 1,141 0.48 7/13
This is going to be close.
No 1,045 0.53 6/13
Yes 926 0.47 6/13
Another shift.
The tide has turned in Union County.
No 814 0.49 5/13
Yes 836 0.51 5/13
Most of the major news organizations are projection Hillary Clinton as the winner in South Dakota over Barack Obama.
Hillary Clinton 10,879 0.57 144/762
Barack Obama 8,268 0.43 144/762
Obama made a couple glancing stops in SD, whereas Clinton, along with her former president husband and enigmatic daughter, spent the full week leading up to the primary in the state. Obviously the feet on the ground paid off for her.
Obama chose the strategic move to concentrate on the general and you cannot fault him, politically, for that. HRC, on the other hand, was doing everything she could to win as many votes as possible in order to put herself in a more attractive position for Obama to consider her for VP.
DAVID WHITESOCK — The former president of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, blew into Vermillion on Friday night, just like the storm that delayed the speech by about 30 minutes.
The event was impressive; I suppose. I don’t get too worked up over events with politicians. Our country treats them like rock stars, which is ridiculous. We elevate these individuals upon pedestals, yet at the same time we want them to be simple, like us. It’s a contradiction which has, in my opinion, been the root cause for the country coming to depend on our representatives to improve our lives — not ourselves.
Now that my soapbox rant has been disposed of, lets forward some other thoughts.
Bill Clinton is one hell of a speaker. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time with U.S. Senators in the past, and it is very easy to tell when they are “feeling it” and excited to deliver an address, and when they “phone it in.” Bubba phoned this one in.
I’ve never seen him in person, but obviously there is a difference between what the television represents and what he’s like in person. There was charisma (the top descriptor for Mr. Clinton), and there was also that calm swagger that he has. But, there wasn’t much of a connection with the audience. He was on auto pilot. But we can give him the benefit of the doubt, he’s been traversing from podunk South Dakota town to podunk South Dakota town for the last week now, doing the dirty, smelly campaign work for his wife.
Nonetheless, with just a single sheet of notes — no full text anywhere — he stood up for 50+ minutes and delivered a speech with tremendous grace and ability. Granted, he has been giving the same speech 3 or 4 (sometimes more) times a day, but to do what he does, is always difficult.
Obviously, I think the policies of he and his wife are absurd and not in the spirit of what the Founders had in mind for this country, but damn if he didn’t almost convince me that socialism is the way to go.
Just kidding about that last part; he wasn’t even close to convincing me, but I’m sure for those who are less in tune with what liberty really is, they could be persuaded.
Regardless of my biases — which I state for complete clarification of where I come from so you can consider full disclosure regarding my journalistic integrity (or lack thereof for some) — The Volante had a band of merry reporters covering the event.
Read Nick Woltman’s wonderful article on the speech and event as a whole.
Michelle Rydell, along with Sarah Reinecke took the video camera for a ride and got event-goers reaction to the president’s visit and to the politics of the season.
Devin Wagner, who is in town working with AIJI, shot an amazing amount of superb photos… As did The Volante’s own Adam Lichty.
And lastly, I had the audio recorder capturing sound of the people and combined that with Devin’s photos — View audio slideshow.
Check out all of The Volante’s coverage of the former president’s visit as well as all the latest from USD, Vermillion, and of course with tomorrow’s primary election.
