An Interesting Fact About Obama's Lead in the Popular Vote

One of Barack Obama's main claims to the Dem nomination (besides his lead in delegate count) is is lead in popular votes. And just where did that lead come from?

In the race for the most popular votes in the Democratic Party's presidential primary contests, Sen. Barack Obama's lead over Sen. Hillary Clinton is about 711,000 votes -- not including Florida or Michigan -- according to Real Clear Politics.

Of Sen. Obama's 711,000 popular-vote lead, 650,000 -- or more than 90% of the total margin -- comes from Sen. Obama's home state of Illinois, with 429,000 of that lead coming from his home base of Cook County.

That margin in Cook County represents almost 60% of Obama's total lead nationwide.

Barack Obama's candidacy has often been compared to John Kennedy, and as I recall it was the dead voters of Cook County, IL that put Kennedy's campaign over the top in 1960.

This could very effectively blunt Obama's argument on the popular vote issue.