‘Uncommitted' and unknown score points against Obama

ByABC News
May 23, 2012, 5:18 AM

— -- President Obama easily won Tuesday night's Democratic primary in Kentucky, capturing 58 percent of the vote.

That sounds like a solid victory. But with the president running unopposed in the Bluegrass State that means more than four in 10 voters didn't pick him.

Who did they choose instead? Forty-two percent of those going to the polls rejected the president in favor of "uncommitted."

And, according to Louisville's Courier-Journal newspaper, in 67 of Kentucky's 120 counties, "uncommitted" received more votes than the president.

Over in Arkansas, where he had an actual opponent, Obama lost a similar percentage of the vote. According to preliminary returns from the state's open primary, John Wolfe, a lawyer from Tennessee, is polling at about 40 percent.

Though little known, Wolfe is no stranger to politics. The Washington Post reports he was previously on the primary ballots in Louisiana, Missouri and New Hampshire, and will be on next week's ballot in Texas. He has also run four failed campaigns for Congress.

Both Kentucky and Arkansas are considered solid red states for the general election and their less than enthusiastic support for the president comes as no surprise. Still, as the AP points out, "it's a bit embarrassing for the Democratic Party and highlights Obama's political weakness in Southern states."

Just two weeks ago, more than 40 percent of voters in West Virginia's Democratic primary chose a federal inmate named Keith Judd over the president.

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