No excuse

Weather couldn’t be blamed. The dog didn’t eat the ballot. So state Democratic Party officials had to find something else to finger for the fact that Barack Obama managed to lose 15 counties in Tuesday’s presidential primary and came in third in some of those counties. The blame for an incumbent president’s 57 percent finish statewide in a five-man race officially went to low turnout. By contrast, incumbent George H.W. Bush took 70 percent of the Republican vote in 1992, also in a five-man race, and won all the delegates up for grabs. Unless party officials can find a way around it, Obama will have to share Oklahoma’s delegate count with Randall Terry and Jim Rogers. Urban Democrats, even in Oklahoma, still like Obama. But look for their rural counterparts to join Republicans and independents in supporting the GOP nominee in November. There’s no excuse for the president’s unpopularity here.

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