Opinion: The margin watch in the Democratic presidential race

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Hillary Clinton’s final margin in the West Virginia primary will be overwhelming, but it will fall short of the biggest routs she and Barack Obama have scored over each other in their ongoing battle.

To refresh our memory, we checked the Primary Tracker on the politics page at latimes.com. We also set aside caucuses, where attendance is limited, and focused solely on primaries.

For Clinton, the state where she racked up her most lopsided victory was where she served as first lady for so many years: Arkansas. On Super Tuesday -- remember, Feb. 5, the day that was going to determine the Democratic nominee? -- she carried it by 44 percentage points.

West Virginia, though, came through hugely for her -- it will surpass Oklahoma as the site of her second best showing. She won the Sooner State, another Super Tuesday contest, by 24 percentage points. (Also on that date, she carried her current home state, New York, by 17 percentage points.)

Obama’s largest margin came in the Feb. 12 District of Columbia primary -- he won the predominantly African American city by 49 percentage points. Also on that day, he carried Virginia by 29 percentage points -- his fourth best showing (and an outcome that stands in stark contrast to West Virginia).

Obama’s second most impressive triumph (in terms of margin) occurred on Super Tuesday when he won Georgia by 35 percentage points. And his home state of Illinois, also voting then, gave him his third best margin, 32 percentage points.

-- Don Frederick