Wednesday, January 09, 2008
wOw
Hopefully, I'll look back on Hillary's amazing upset as a good thing.
Right now, though, hubristic Obamatons like myself are shocked at the New Hampshire primary results. We're wondering "what happened to that audacious electoral wave we were riding?" However, a disappointing second place finish is not necessarily the end of the world for the Obama campaign. In fact, there are plenty of silver linings.
First, the results remind everyone how dynamic politics can be, and how incomplete polls can be. Second, the results should be a strong signal to the Obama campaign to stop playing it safe, even when they think they are far ahead (which they might have been). Third, a competitive primary race will be good for democracy, and good for increasing Democratic and Independent turnout in swing states. (There was record turnout in Iowa and New Hampshire.) Fourth, Obama will need to earn it. I still think his campaign strategy is brilliant, on multiple
fronts, and I think he is well positioned to go all the way. He had Hillary seemingly trapped, but she escaped at the last second. However, much of the country would've felt cheated had Obama effectively sewn up the nomination after a New Hampshire win. If he had to campaign in 48 other states as a
fait accompli-- that's not exactly the most inspiring situation for an inspiring candidate.
Labels: Elections and Campaigns, Hillary, Obama
13 Comments:
What I think will be interesting is if in South Carolina, John Edwards comes in first, followed by Hillary then by Obama. Then each will have a first, second, and third place finish.
Nice spin, boss. I'm dizzy from the way you painted this. You're making the Bears fan sound like the second coming of Bobby Kennedy.
But Hillary didn't win anything but some breathing room: Obama and Clinton got the same number of delegates, but Obama has 3 of the five superdelegates leaning his way.
So Obama walked outta NH with one more delegate than Clinton.
She won't spin it that way, and Obama won't publicly, but you know they're happy to put up another in the victory column, even if it's behind the scenes.
did you know our primary is on Mardi Gras Day? I wonder how bad the turn out is going to be in southeastern LA, and if all polling stations will be open correctly...
The good thing here is Iowa and NH aren't the end all be all... should be interesting to see how the candidates do in the south and the real states like CA, FL, TX, and NY
"Obamaton"? A rObamot?
I just think you're having waaay too much fun doing some lexical gymnastics with poor Barack's name, man. Get over it. Yeesh.
schleifnet: "did you know our primary is on Mardi Gras Day?"
It's not. It's on February, 9th, the Saturday after Mardis Gras.
Actually, schleifnet, Louisiana's primary is on Saturday, February 9, because of Mardi Gras.
Today is the last day to change your voting registration, so if you're an Independent but you want to vote in the Primary...get thee to the Registrar of Voter's Office ASAP.
Surely, Hillary performed a minor miracle and has some nice mOmentum; but when has winning Iowa and coming in a close second in New Hampshire ever been considered anything but a successful outcome? This just makes it interesting. And I agree with all the points you make about the positives of this for the Democrats and for America.
The fact is that, now, neither Clinton, nor Obama will be coronated as the nominee until the fat lady sings. And both should be chastened into better candidates.
Clinton's surprisingly humble (even if a bit rote) victory speech, and Obama's sincerely gracious and magnanimous, yet upbeat, concession speech turned my initial disappointment into a real contentment. I'm still, as jeffrey would say, an enthusiastic Obama "cultist," but I have to say that I am especially proud today simply to be a Democrat.
i thought the primary was on super tuesday due to a report on fox news after the game monday, guess i misheard... I think the report was actually on how nola won't have the national spotlight for mardigras cause its on super tuesday, then my wife and i started talking about louisiana being one of the 19 that day and how we wouldn't have a good turnout... hopefully no one give up voting for lent then...
in other words, my bad
local fox news (WVUE), not 'foxnews'
Great...so the primary is the day after the Van Halen concert. Maybe I can have someone go into the booth with me to make sure my aim is right.
Someone pointed out to me that people get complacent unless there's real competition. Coming in second last night will help Obama raise money (I know this is true, because I woke up first thing this morning thinking I should make a donation) and mobilize volunteers.
Beware of using the expression "earn it." That didn't work out too well for us this year. It gives me the shivers.
Have Faith.
