Wednesday, March 5, 2008

"There will be blood"

No, I am not talking about the Daniel Day-Lewis movie based on the famous muckraker book, "Oil!", I am talking about the Democratic party primary process.

Hillary's victory in three out of four primaries has put her back in the hunt. Obama's lone victory of Vermont last night was hugely overshadowed by her winning of the other three, particularly Texas. But what should concern the Democrats last night was her overwhelming victory in Ohio. The Democrats must win a big population red state from McCain if they are going to retake the White House. Most pundits figured that to be Ohio, hit hard by free trade and the manufacturing slowdown. Also, polling data is beginning to question whether the blue collar vote will support a candidate with Obama's...um...demographics...

But Obama retains the delegate lead, and he will pick off some more victories in the next few weeks like the upcoming contests in Wyoming and Mississippi. She has 6 weeks before the Pennsylvania primary on April 22nd, her next chance for a big delegate score. The pressure on the "superdelegates" will be excruciating and the angst inside the Democratic party hierarchy will accelerate. It's a perfect storm of crisis proportions for Howard Dean and his people running the DNC. And what will they do about Florida and Michigan? You can't have a convention where only 48 states are seated!

McCain's easy victories last night that officially gave him the nomination will be capped by an White House lawn endorsement today. He gets to raise money and repair fences in his base while the Democrats rip themselves to shreds over the next few months raising the spectre of Denver as Chicago 1968. At this point, whichever candidate wins the nomination, the loser's followers may see McCain as an acceptable alternative.

Who saw this coming just a few months ago?

Keep your eye focused on the media bias. Obama has gotten a free pass for months, now the press is questioning if he has the stomach for the kind of bare-knuckle brawl that will be necessary to win this thing...both for Denver, and for November. He's been above the fray...can he win this this backstreet style? We know the Clintons can. They will do what it takes, including hint that they would put Obama on the ticket, in order to win a third term in the White House.

Gonna need more popcorn...

Coach

2 comments:

Jon Hinthorne said...

can you bring some popcorn over my way cause you're not the only one that's going to need it!
Don't you think that the math makes it almost impossible for Hillary to win???

Coach said...

It all depends on HOW she wins...for her to get the delegates straight out, yes, nearly impossible.

This is why the superdelegate system was set up. She must convince them that Obama would guarantee a Republican victory.

we will now see if Obama has the stomach for a brass-knuckle fight. The resignation today of his foreign affairs advisor suggest that he doesn't...but time will tell.