While We’re Waiting For The Polls To Close In Wisconsin…
…I might as well tell you that early voting in the Texas primary began today. I voted – though I leave it to you to guess the party and candidate.
I’ll also enlighten you to my status as ‘big loser’ – I know, you’re shocked. But this time, I mean because I was an early adopter. That’s right, I went HD DVD over Blu-Ray, and today Toshiba made official what every sentinent being has known since Warner Brothers took the Blu-Ray plunge, and announced that it is abandoning the format, for all intents and purposes.
Now I know how it felt to own a Betamax…
UPDATE 8:14 p.m.: McCain has already been declared the winner in Wisconsin…
UPDATE 8:22 p.m.: And, with 1% in, Obama has also been declared the winner…gee, what a suspense-filled evening!…
When does he become the “front-runner”? One would think when he’s out in front. Or after, say, 9 wins in a row?
The big suspense now is how much damage Hillary is willing to do before admitting defeat.
The AP is now reporting that the Hillary camp is now trying to “poach” pledged delegates — you know, the ones that were chosen by the voters.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_campaignplus/20080220/ap_ca/on_deadline_wisconsin)
Boy oh boy, Hillary’s campaign sure looks old, tired, and dead. I am truly shocked. Does Ohio even matter? Everything they’ve tried recently has backfired. Wow, the Clinton machine has gone from brilliant to stupid really, really quickly. Obama may be thin on details, but there sure is a lot to be said about the power of positive thinking (and speaking). Her only hope is to convince the powers-that-be in the Party that Obama is unelectable in the general. But he’s drawing pretty big, versus her, outside the base, so I don’t see how she makes that case.
I’ll say it again, WOW.
Although it may be easy to say with hindsight, it now looks like Hillary’s campaign was always stupid — they never had a Plan B. They started out by ignoring small states and caucus states, intending to win all the big states and clinch the nomination before Super Tuesday — and they’re still making exactly the same mistake.
Even if she edges out Obama in Texas and Ohio, he’ll more than make up the paltry difference in delegates when he wins Vermont and Rhode Island in landslides.
Why will he win Vermont and Rhode Island in landslides? Because he’s the only candidate competing there.
He’s got seven full-time campaign staffers in Vermont and has been running television ads for the last week. Hillary’s campaign has yet to open a Vermont office.
(http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_adams/2008/02/lost_in_wisconsin.html)
And she’s “more electable” why, exactly? The benefit of her extensive experience with national campaigns is what, exactly?
A few months ago, Hillary and Rudy were seen as inevitable. Seems like inevitability in politics lasts about as long as an ice cube on a hot pavement.
I think the tipping point for Hillary was when Bill started pointing his finger at reporters. Enough people said “oh, these guys again” for Obama to get the big mo.
You are probably right as to the tipping point, but I think that lets them off the hook to easily. Clearly they had the wrong strategy in approaching the primary and caucus contests (which to focus on, which to ignore), but I also think they judged this to be a policy issue campaign. Obama has bet on a vision-thing campaign with a strong positive, we-can-do-it appeal. He’s winning, she’s not.
I’m sure you’re right and there are lots of errors in strategy and execution — or it could just be the zeitgeist, maybe Obama is a better fit for right now and there wasn’t much Hillary could do –
mike, see my newest post in just a few…