Clinton Needs A Blowout?
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Kneel Before Zod | Let's You And Him Fight | Rooting For Injuries — Comments (14) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
I think not, this story notwithstanding. The trick for Hillary Clinton is not getting massive victory margins that will allow her to overtake Barack Obama in the delegate count. Rather, the trick is for her to get enough of a win in Pennsylvania and in other primaries to slow down any bandwagoning phenomenon that will benefit Obama, thus allowing her to go to the Democratic National Convention, engage in a knifefight and perhaps emerge victorious from a chaotic situation in which the Obama forces might have no idea how to react and behave.
To be sure, the Clintons would like to win bigger instead of smaller. But after a six week layoff, a loss is really not going to help the Obama campaign. It needs to recapture momentum just as much as the Clinton campaign does, after all.
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Clinton Needs A Blowout? 14 Comments (0 topical, 14 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
The St. Louis Post-Disgrace had a similar front page story in big letters: CLINTON CANNOT CATCH OBAMA is what it said essentially. Hillary knows she can't overtake Obama in pledged delegates, but Obama cannot reach the required amount either, and he will need superdelegates to reach 2025 as well. Hillary's goal is to injure Obama sufficiently so as to cast doubt on his GE prospects. In the meantime she hopes to catch up in the popular vote.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”
There was a time when I thought that it might, but recent indications suggest that it won't. Even a number of prominent Clinton supporters have recently gone on record as saying that the party will choose it's nominee by June. Assuming that Obama doesn't close it out earlier by winning today or big in Indiana, expect the super delegates to coalesce around him very shortly after the final votes are cast in June.
-exits
Once the undecided super delegates coalesce around Obama the delegates from Michigan and Florida won't matter. In fact, one of the results of the final wave of super delegates to Obama is that everyone will quickly agree that both delegations can be seated at the convention.
-exits
...they're pretty much planning to seat the two States now. You can take that with as much salt as you like, but Bowers presumably has more of an ear to the ground on this than I or you do. :)
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
I do think though that it gives the undecided super delegates even more incentive to make sure that those particular delegations aren't dispositive.
-exits
The piece seems to suggest that Hillary's camp agreed to 55 pledged delegates for Obama out of Michigan. I'd be really surprised if that were the case, as it essentially drives the last nail into her delegate coffin. I expected her to fight against all reason to deprive him of any Michigan delegates.
-exits
And persuading the superdelegates to swing.
The press hath decreed that the magic number is 10. As in percentage margin of victory for Hillary.
Anything above that casts serious doubt on Obama's ability to win in the battleground states, making the superdelegates really nervous about backing him. Anything below it makes Hillary's campaign look even more futile and destructive, tempting the superdelegates to end it soon.
Gotta remember we're talking about Democrats here. They actually listen to the media viewpoint as if it has authority.
"If all men were just, there would be no need of valor."
- Agesilaus
The headline _I_ read was NSFW.