April 26, 2008...3:06 pm
Obama and Hillary’s Problems
After spending $15 million in Pennsylvania in the past month and logging hours on the road across the Keystone State, the two Democratic candidates traded just a dozen delegates.
Clinton’s victory, though nearly a full 10 points in the popular vote, was hardly substantial where it counted. The situation mirrored Texas, which Hillary actually lost in the delegate count, and Super Tuesday’s races, all of which left the campaign nearly unchanged. The election has cost Obama and Clinton together over $350 million to-date with virtually inconclusive results continuously plaguing the race.
Though Hillary did not gain much ground on Obama this week, she did win two critical victories: she cut Obama’s popular vote lead by 25% and picked up a much needed wave of momentum. Almost as important for Hillary has been signs that Obama is wearing down. (His hair is even graying.) His uncharacteristic miscues, such as the comment about rural Pennsylvanians, are leading some Democrats to think that if he can’t go the distance in the primary, how could he withstand the presidency?
Financial expenditures and aging aside, the basic math is in Obama’s favor right now. Given a best case scenario in the remaining primaries, Hillary will still be well short of taking the lead (considering polls in Indiana and North Carolina). The contest will eventually come down to superdelegates, of which she will need 70% to 75% of the remaining undeclared. Unfortunately she has only gotten 4% of the pledged superdelegates since March.
This has led to many calls for Hillary to exit and allow Obama to focus on McCain. But Slate Magazine says Hillary has “every right to stay in the primary race for as long as she wishes” because she could capture the popular vote and sway the superdelegates. Yet, even if she were to win the popular vote, would superdelegates truly strip Obama of the nomination he leads by the party’s rules?
Considering superdelegates are the most important voters now, Democrats will basically be spending money on themselves under the guise of primary elections. The situation would almost be comical if one didn’t consider all the other things $15 million could have bought. How many uninsured Americans could get healthcare from the next $100 million spent in this campaign? (…and yes, that is said tongue-in-cheek).
Those are my thoughts.
Published here: http://www.worldontheweb.com/2008/04/24/a-look-at-the-long-road-ahead/
1 Comment
April 27, 2008 at 2:14 am
I really hope people wake up and realize just how extremist these Presidential candidates are. Hillary wants to force people to have health care in a supposedly FREE country, Obama wants more cooperation with the UN and to take our guns away(if you’re Christian, you know world government = BAD), and McCain is just a fascist Bush clone that’ll keep us in Iraq as long as he thinks it’s “necessary” to keep us there. None of these candidates have the people in mind… the Presidency is just a seat of power to them and all the “Hillary loves us” or “Obama loves us” or “McCain loves us” in the world isn’t going to change that. They all want the same thing, they just want to go through different routes and at different speeds to get it. The words “democrat” and “republican” are to keep us separated and fighting each other, because if we ever sit down and stop fighting with each other long enough to watch them do what they do behind our backs, they know their game is up.
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