If Obama also wins in one of his home states of Hawaii and Washington State's nonbinding primary, that will substantially narrow the chances for any Hillary comeback.
She pretty much has to win Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania and run the table on all the straggly primaries like my state of Kentucky to have a chance. I don't think super-delegates are going to put her over the top and also think it would be a disaster if they did. Think Hubert Humphrey backroom nomination in 1968 as an example of what being a less than fully legitimate Democratic nominee can get you.
Given that I've been supporting Hillary, all of this is a big disappointment.
That's partly because Hillary's running out of excuses for losing.
She could say that the Wisconsin's primary set up well for Obama because it was an open primary where independents and Republicans could vote on the Democratic side. Moreover, independents broke at least 2-1 for Obama.
But Wisconsin is a swing state and the fact that independents broke for Obama implies that they would be more likely to vote Democratic with Obama heading the ticket.
That's a good argument for Obama being the more electable Democrat against Republican middleweight John McCain.
But there are a couple of flies in the Obama ointment.
The plagiarism issue of Obama lifting passages from the speeches of Duval Patrick rankles. As someone who has evaluated a lot of plagiarism cases, Obama's use of the Patrick speech strikes me as dishonest. I've heard a lot of excuses about politicians stealing lines from each other and Patrick making excuses, but I still think it's wrong and that the issue could chip away at Obama's teflon coating.
Right-wing bloggers have also picked up on Michelle Obama saying that
For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction. And just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic, common issues and it's made me proud.
It's poor form for any political figure to defy the norms of conventional patriotism in the U. S. It looks like this one might slide by in the glow of the Wisconsin victory, but Michelle Obama seems to be just as much a loose cannon as Hillary Clinton's husband.
That could blow up in Barack's face just like it blew up in Hillary's.
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Plus a side of sour grapes.
If Obama gets the nomination, do you think the right will try to stir up racial prejudices? Or will the right wing think that will backfire and steer clear?
I know that there is a lot of racism still left. I know that in private discussions, racist talk is and will be alive. I believe some on the right will try to inject racist language in some form. I just wonder what the impact will be, how open and blunt the racist issue will be, and how nasty it might get.
It is crazy to think that racism might still play a factor...but the reality is that I hear blunt racist talk surprisingly often.
It didn't take long! CNN has jumped on Michelle's ill-thought statement. Larry Sabato said that it could cost Obama the nomination and McCain's wife is speaking out on the statement. A big ouch
it appears that david axelrod has been an adviser for just about all of them. probably he's charging each one of them lots of $$$$ and selling them all the same limited set of speeches.
this doesn't speak well of the democratic candidates' due diligence in the hring of their advisers perhaps, but otoh, it's not entirely bad that all the democrats are saying roughly the same things and have approximately the same plans for how they'd like to lead the country.
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