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Posted: February 20, 2008 2:44 PM
Obama Takes Aloha State, Extends Winning Streak to 10
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With a big mahalo to supporters, Sen. Barack Obama celebrated a 10-contest winning streak Tuesday night with victories in Wisconsin and his native Hawaii.

By winning 76 percent of the state’s vote, Obama hauled in 14 of the state’s 20 delegates, dealing a blow to rival Democrat Sen. Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s caucuses.

Neither candidate traveled to the Hawaiian Islands to campaign, but they both sent surrogates to represent their causes. Clinton’s daughter Chelsea made appearances over the weekend, and Obama’s half-sister Maya Soetoro Ng made stops throughout Oahu to talk to supporters.

In an e-mail to supporters before the final results were in, Obama noted that a win in Hawaii could boost his appeal heading into major contests next week.

“If we win in Hawaii, it will be ten straight victories — a streak no one thought possible, and the best position we can be in when Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont vote on March 4th,” he said.

The Illinois senator, who has done well in previous caucuses, welcomed support from a record number of Aloha State voters.

“Party officials had expected a larger-than-normal turnout and printed 17,000 ballots,” the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported. “It proved well short of the more than 37,000 votes cast and many precincts resorted to handing out scraps of paper to voters to write in their choice.”

In 2004, the state’s Democratic caucus drew just about 4,000 participants.

In satellite TV interviews with Hawaiian news stations Tuesday, Clinton attempted to convince voters that her candidacy rests on substance rather than style, and noted that media sources have recently scrutinized Obama.

“You know, the media is finally examining my opponent, which I think is important because we’re trying to pick a president, someone for the toughest job in the world,” she told KGMB TV 9, a CBS affiliate, according to the Chicago Tribune. “So I think the media is going to be putting forth whatever facts and information it has for voters to assess on their own.”

Obama and Clinton will focus even more of their campaign’s attention on Texas and Ohio ahead of those states’ March 4 contests.

As Clinton spoke Tuesday night in Ohio, Obama began a speech in Texas, “effectively cutting her off as cable television networks dropped her midsentence, a telling sign of the showmanship power of a front-runner,” the New York Times reported.

“Houston, I think we achieved liftoff here,” Obama said, focusing on the 193 delegates at stake in the state. “The change we seek is still months and miles away, and we need the good people of Texas to help us get there.”