A great night for anyone who loves to watch politics and election coverage on television - not to mention supporting Barack Obama.
Obama beat Clinton by 14% in North Carolina. Clinton won by a bare 2% in Indiana after a long, edge-of-your seat night which started with Clinton well ahead. These results will more than make up for the 12 delegates and popular vote lost by Obama in Pennsylvania. Obama will gain at least 15 delegates in North Carolina, and lose a total of 2 in Indiana - he'll be leading by at least 150 delegates again, and considerably closer to the finish line. With just a handful of primaries remaining, there's no chance for Hillary to overtake him.
These results show that Obama has indeed come back from the damage done to him by Rev. Wright. As he said in his victory speech in North Carolina tonight, he loves America. The people of North Carolina and Indiana, added together, believe him.
They also were responsive to his refusal to play games with our out-of-control gas prices. They approved of his rejection of the gas tax holiday gimmick, and his insistence on working for a real, long lasting solution. As Thomas Jefferson (also referenced in Obama's speech) believed, people are inherently rational, and can sort truth from false claims.
Hillary Clinton gave a good speech in Indiana, too. She ran an impressive campaign, even though she failed to capitalize on her momentum from Pennsylvania, and lost considerable ground. I continue to think that the best possible ticket for the Democrats would be Obama for President, and Clinton for VP.
But I think there's no doubt now that Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President. Tonight's impressive victory in North Carolina and near-victory in Indiana, added to the states and delegates and popular votes he has already won, make him unbeatable for the nomination.
He will also prevail over John McCain, the man of the past, in the Fall.
7 comments:
Wish you were right. However the game is not over yet. You cant count your chickens before their hatched .
HRC is smart and tenacious and willing to hit below the belt without compunction. Obama is not willing thank god to get into the gutter, but question is, where will this end ?With the sublime (read idealistic ) or the ridiculous(read the 1001 and barbs and baits and jugular attacks that have and will ensue..)
To paraphrase a biblical wisdom" hell hath no fury than Hilary on a back foot ..."
I aint holding my breath for the next slime ball tossed.
Shehara,
I respectfully disagree. I think the Clintons know the deal. I think they'll have to continue to pay off the debt that they've rung up, including $11.4 million of their own money(!). The tone will change now. It will be more neutral towards Obama, and sharper towards McCain.
The campaign knows that the Wright business didn't hurt him all that much, and that the other attacks didn't phase him at all. You could see in her speech last night that the Clinton family had come to the conclusion that things are slipping away. I feel strongly that she's going to raise the tone of the election to get some money, win WV and Kentucky, and then slip away gracefully.
There still a lot of political life for that family to lead, and a lot of money to be made on a legacy of hope and success that would be sullied if she lost without grace.
The McCain/Obama race has begun and it's going to be very ugly....for McCain. I saw him speaking today and it was striking. My consciousness shifted last night, seeing Obama as the nominee, and the cognitive contrast that I can now draw is so stark as to allow me the delusion that this election will be a landslide.
I think Mike Plugh has made some astute points concerning the HRC-08 campaign. However, I hope she doesn't end up as the VP nominee. I don't think she'd take it, as it would be a step down. She's still a hard-nosed politician and she could become a formidable Senate majority leader.
I think Obama should pick Senator Jim Webb as his VP. It would shore up the militaristically-minded voters in the country. Webb is from the South, too, which could help. He's well-qualified and respected.
Another strategically interesting VP pick might be the Kansas governor ... because choosing Webb or Clinton as a VP would subtract them from the Senate.
Good point about not wanting to subtract good people from the Senate, John ....
Still ... I think Hillary would make a powerful running-mate, and could bring a lot to the Vice Presidency. Given her stature and her passion, she might well even redefine it.
Whoever ends up winning the Democratic nomination, does anyone else think that this drawn out campaign will work in the Dem's favor in the general election? Clinton and Obama have been on TV every night for the last two months. Where has John McCain been? It's not his fault, he ran a good campaign and won quickly, but being out of the public eye for that long can't be good for him when it's time to start campaigning again. The Democratic candidate will have all the momentum.
I agree - and that's one of many reasons that I think Obama will win the general election by a big margin this November.
"But I think there's no doubt now that Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President. Tonight's impressive victory in North Carolina and near-victory in Indiana, added to the states and delegates and popular votes he has already won, make him unbeatable for the nomination." ... damn, I hate double-speech -- near-victory, that a loss by a slim margin ... "Here's one they just made up - "near miss". When two planes almost collide, they call it a near miss. It's a near hit. A collision is a near miss. 'Oh, look! They nearly missed!'" - George Carlin ... until Democrat Party Chairman Howard Dean gets the superdelegates to declare their votes, this whole process will continue to drag on, regardless of odds of victory ... her party's interests be damned, even if the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against Hillary Clinton at over 100 to 1, its clearly apparent that she's not going to stop until she's forced to ...
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