Stayin' Alive!

Hilla gives us a Thrilla -- Picture courtesy of HillaryClinton.com

by blogSpotter
Today's blog is aimed directly at Jonathan Alter, Tim Russert and Howard Fineman. These are three usually sensible talking heads who have recently implied, or said outright that Hillary should just roll over and die -- just take one for the team. According to their reasoning, there's no real substantive difference between Clinton and Obama; her protracted campaign against Obama will just give McCain some kind of time advantage.

First of all, Clinton and Obamas' delegate counts are neck and neck -- they're essentially tied. Obama leads Hillary 1451 to 1365 by the latest count. Hillary's victories in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island closed the gap some last night. The candidates are not the same. I won't bedraggle it any further here, but Obama isn't everyone's cup of tea. If he were nominated I probably would vote for McCain -- it does in fact matter who the nominee is.

A couple of other things worth mentioning... Florida and Michigan were punished by the Democratic Party for moving their primaries up in the schedule. The thinking now is that do-overs in these two states might serve as tie-breakers. One super delegate being interviewed on CNN last night said that they'd be looking for the strongest overall candidate -- he said that Hillary's victories in all of the big states would figure prominently.

Bottom line is that Obama doesn't have it "in the bag". This campaign may be taken to the mat at a brokered Democratic Convention. That is altogether fair and reasonable when the candidates are this close and each has a vocal, committed group behind it. Who said that the nominating process has to be a cake walk? Democracy is probably served better when it isn't a cake walk.

Lastly, the Hillary detractors were saying that her "3 in the morning" phone ad was fighting below the belt. There is nothing below the belt about wondering if your 46 year old speech-making President wannabe could handle a nuclear crisis. There was nothing deeply personal or insulting about the ad. The ads could and probably will get much worse than that. I don't think Clinton or Obama has it all sewn up -- it remains to be seen. But kudos to Hillary for staying in the fight; she has that right. I'll sign off for now, lest I do anymore rhymes like that.

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