The Aftermath: McCain, Obama, & Clinton

[88Mariner]

Last starting first. Hillary lost NC big time. The question remains is whether she'll sink herself into more debt. The nomination is literally out of her hands, save for a last-minute appeal maneouver that will make her look like greedy dogshit. (her camp calls it the nuclear hail-mary).

Obama wins big, but loses a little in Indiana. Not great, but not bad either. I see this as the nail in the coffin for him.


but the BIGGEST news of the night. one you probably will not read in your papers or see on television: The number of Republicans voting for McCain has dwindled. As the 'presumptive' nominee, he didn't gain more than 80% of the vote, with large chunks still voting for paul and huckabee, and better....for 'no specified candidate'. He's been losing votes and support from conservatives ever since he tied things up on super tuesday. I think as time goes on, he'll make more factual mistakes, flip-flop more often, be switfboated by legitimate conservatives (a conservative he is not), his saddling up with the Bush administration will do him no good, and...

....


....this is just horrible news for McCain. Which makes it good news for me, and for the rest of us, too.

[toasty]

Re: The Aftermath: McCain, Obama, & Clinton

I thought this was pretty telling:

Before the Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4th, Senator Clinton was trailing Barack Obama by 102 delegates overall. She had 1,267 and he had 1,369. Today Senator Obama has 1836 delegates to her 1,681. In total she trails Senator Obama by 155 delegates now. So, that means she has lost 53 delegates in that time.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/reality-has-well-known-ob_b_100530.html

Keep in mind, this is during the time period that Clinton was purportedly building all of this "momentum" and showing her "superior electability." The smoke has blown away, the mirrors have been broken, and the story has finally changed to reflect that which most rational people have known for some time, that she had no chance of winning. The Clinton Deathwatch on Slate, for instance, dropped her way down today to 4.2% -- which is frankly still pretty generous:

http://www.slate.com/id/2190778/?from=rss

I get that the press has an incentive to keep this race going and to perpetuate the idea that it's close, but it's time for everyone to finally acknowledge that the Emperor has no clothes. Obama has had the worst three weeks of his campaign, and he's still managed to add to his lead during that time. Glad to see that that seems to be the storyline on just about every media outlet today. About freakin' time, IMO.

[toasty]

Re: The Aftermath: McCain, Obama, & Clinton

I just went to take a dump, and as I was sitting there, I had a thought -- when you think about it, the only thing that has really changed is the storyline. Think back to shortly after Texas and Ohio, which purported to "rejuvenate" the Clinton campaign. Since that time, Obama won contests in Wyoming and Mississippi which were largely ignored, so we'll ignore them as well for the purpose of argument, because the next big state was Pennsylvania, and the drumbeat was all about her comeback.

Clinton wins PA, Obama wins NC, and those largely cancel each other out in terms of delegates and popular vote. Indiana is effectively a push, with Clinton netting just a few delegates and 20,000 or so votes in that state.

In terms of vote tally and pledged delegate count, aren't we pretty much where we were 8 weeks ago? Clinton had an insurmountable deficit then, and she has an insurmountable deficit now. The coverage, though, has been entirely different -- then, she had caught her second wind, and now she's slouching towards defeat.

I do wonder if things had been different if Texas had been covered differently. I think Obama's camp did a bad job of spinning that win. He actually won -- and Clinton had previously indicated that she needed wins in Texas and Ohio to keep going -- but the fact that he came out of the state with 5 more delegates was an asterisk to most stories about the results that day.

Oh well. I do hope she at least has the courtesy to alert us with a reasonable amount of notice when she plans to give her concession speech, so we can adequately prepare for that joyous occasion. Party at my place!

[Huggie Smiles]

Re: The Aftermath: McCain, Obama, & Clinton

I just went to take a dump,

she just loaned herself another 6 million!

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/05/07/report-clinton-loans-herself-64-million/

a) Damn, they have a lot of money
b) har har - no ones giving you donations.

[subterFUSE]

Re: The Aftermath: McCain, Obama, & Clinton

Toasty takes a steamer, and Clinton spends more money.

Hey Toasty. Maybe you need to hold it until June?

[superdave]

Re: The Aftermath: McCain, Obama, & Clinton

I've listened to her speak today and last night and sounds like she's hoping on getting the Florida and Michigan delegates. I can only imagine the back room dealings she's pulling to get the nomination. I will give her credit. She certainly knows how to put up a fight.