Obama is Gaining Momentum
Feb 12, 2008 Political
Hillary Clinton has all but conceded the primaries up until Texas and Ohio where she hopes to do well with the large population of Latinos in Texas and the blue collar workers in Ohio. If the exit polling from Virginia is any indication, her Texas plan might just backfire. Exit polls show Obama with a 10 point lead among Latinos, a demographic that Clinton was winning handily and one she will have to win handily in Texas if she is going to compete in the process.
It is hard to tell why the turn around. Perhaps people are getting weary of her and perhaps she has looked like a loser this past week and it turned people off. It is also possible that when she fired her campaign manager, a Latino, that she ticked off the Latino community. Several prominent Latinos (here and here) have already expressed their disgust with the move and once that shock wave starts traveling it will be hard to stop it.
Obama is already the projected winner in Virginia where exits show him winning by a 2:1 margin. He should win DC and Maryland though we will have to wait 90 minutes longer for the Maryland results. A judge ordered the polling places to remain open until 2130 because of an ice storm that caused traffic tie ups all across the state.
I wonder if Hillary is throwing ashtrays and nik naks around the place about now. She has waited all her life for this moment, it is her turn and she is the rightful heir to the thrown and this upstart newbie is ruining it for her. She might still pull out the nomination but with a sweep tonight and a win in the two primaries before 4 March, Obama will have peeled off 10 wins in a row. Sure some of them were small states but the momentum has definitely moved to his camp and Hillary is gasping for breath trying to keep up. Obama looks like a winner while Hillary looks like a confused fighter wondering where the next punch will come from. She is not even in the area any longer having departed for El Paso.
Maybe she is trying to shore up the Latino/Hispanic vote before it is too late.
What Will Bill Clinton Do Now?
Jan 26, 2008 Political
The votes are being counted in South Carolina and the only question remaining is how badly will Hillary Clinton be beaten by Barack Obama? The race was called for Obama based on exit polling which is not usually done unless there is a very large margin of victory. As of this post 98% of the precincts have been counted and Obama has more than twice the votes that Clinton has. The Clinton campaign tried to downplay this before th election but they worked hard to win the state nonetheless. Why is she losing so badly when the difference was only about 12% on pre primary polling?
Exit polling shows that the electorate, by and large, was displeased with Bill Clinton’s style of campaigning. This was true among the black voters but also true in about 68% of the white vote. These voters indicated that they believed that Bill Clinton had unfairly attacked Barack Obama and they let him now it with their votes.
I wonder if Hillary Clinton will lose her mind and throw ashtrays at Bill since he is being blamed for the rout? It would be interesting if she does because she was more than happy to have Bill attacking Obama while she campaigned elsewhere. Regardless of how she feels about the affect of Bill this loss must be particularly stinging because in addition to the majority of the black vote Obama picked up about 25% of the white vote. Additionally, only about 20 people showed up at the place they booked for a post primary party. It will also be interesting to see if the Clintons hit even harder or if they switch tactics. She might have to muster up a few more tears. She certainly did not waste time leaving South Carolina for Tennessee…
I also if race will play into this even more. Bill made a remark that Jesse Jackson won the state as if it were no big deal that a black guy won it. I imagine if a white Republican had sad that Jackson would be gathering the Rainbow Coalition for an old fashioned protest and it is still possible that Clinton’s remarks will be seen as patronizing and incur backlash. Regardless, the Clinton campaign is going to have to be more careful because every word they utter now will be scrutinized for perceived racial content.
This might not mean much and Hillary will probably split the Tsunami Tuesday states with Obama. Since February 5th will not decide the candidate, the decision could come down to the Democratic Convention and there might be a real fire fight there.
I do wonder though, if these candidates will pick the other to be a running mate. Given how they have attacked each other it would seem to me they are less than credible in their beliefs if they picked each other. Of course Democrats wold not look at it that way so long as their party wins.
However, if Obama selected Hillary he would never have to worry about someone taking him out…
Sources:
MSNBC
CNN
Washington Post
Others with interesting posts:
Outside the Beltway, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Nuke Gingrich, A Blog For All, 123beta, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Stuck On Stupid, The Pink Flamingo, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, Dumb Ox Daily News, A Newt One, Right Voices, Pursuing Holiness, and OTB Sports, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
Tags: billy blowback, blowout, Clinton, Obama, racial tension, rout, south carolina