Last week, I wrote my column “Is Hillary Finished?” Since then, we have had three more things happen out on the campaign trail.
- Hillary had a huge 40 point win in West Virginia and
- Obama has taken the lead in superdelegates
- John Edwards endorsed Obama
No. 1
It was a nice win for Hillary. It is always good to get a W instead of an L, as Obama gave Hillary over ten straight L's in February. However, this W can be compared to Mike Huckabee beating John McCain in Kansas by a similar margin after Super Tuesday after the race was essentially, but not mathematically over. The win did nothing to stop McCain's momentum; it just gave Huckabee his last real win and delayed the inevitable on March 4 when McCain did mathematically clinch the nomination.
No. 2
Obama continued to get closer to the nomination in spite of the loss in West Virginia as he took over the lead for the first time with “superdelegates.” Most of these party insiders are only interested in “going with the flow” and voting for the winner. Why would we have them in the first place if all they are there for is to confirm how everyone else voted or how the people voted in their state or congressional district? As Stuart Scott says, the superdelegates are from the Department of the Redundancy Department.
The superdelegates are ready to pull the lever and end the race for Obama. But the last couple hundred of undecided superdelegates may be worried about Obama and his chances for victory in November. He has been “bloodied up” somewhat by the process this spring, i.e. Pastor Wright and his gaffes on tax policy and cultural conservatives in his party. He has been exposed as a far “lefty” by his voting record in the Senate as opposed to his centrist rhetoric on the campaign trail. The Republicans have nominated a true bi-partisan centrist in John McCain who will give Obama a run for his money in a year Democrats should win easy.
No. 3
John Edwards endorsing Obama? Who cares? It would have meant something had he done it before his state's primary last week that Obama won big. It means very little now.
It appears that the Democrats are nervous about Obama, but the die is cast. It is too late. Updating my basketball analogy, Hillary made a 3 pointer to cut Obama's lead to 9. But Hillary had to foul Obama and he made both free throws, so the lead is 11 with 45 seconds left. It's just not going to happen for Hillary.
