It appears that my home state of Indiana has pulled it out for Senator Clinton. I have to comment, however, that the biggest loser in the state tonight has to be the Mayor of Gary, Indiana -- Mayor Rudy Clay. Clay, an Obama supporter, made the mistake of going on CNN to try and "explain" why it took hours and hours to get even a small percentage of the machine vote reported. Clay kept repeating that the machine vote couldn't be reported because there were 11,000 absentee ballots to be counted. Make sense? No.Obama was expected to win North Carolina, and he did -- though not by the margin that some had predicted. None of the pollsters could seem to agree on who would win Indiana. Some had Clinton up by 10 points, some had Obama up by 7 points. All were clearly wrong.
Obama said a few weeks ago that Hillary would win PA, that he would win NC, and that Indiana would be the tie breaker. I think what Indiana demonstrated is that Democrats fundamentally like BOTH of these candidates. Well, not the Kucinich crowd, but Democrats who are engaged in this contest.
I was surprised at how low-key the MSNBC pundits were tonight. Given their history, it would be reasonable to expect them to go in for the kill. That didn't seem to happen. The CNN folks were pretty sedate as well. What's up with that?
Obama gave a good speech tonight. It may be the first time I've ever seen him exhibit any real passion. He needs to do that from now on.
My sister was eager to call me this evening. She had been working at the polls all day, and was absolutely excited about this contest. I can't help but believe this has been good for our party. More people are registering and participating in the process. This can only bode well for Democrats in the fall.
9 comments:
Her speech had all the trappings of a non-concession concession speech.
Perhaps she wants to go out on a high note, winning West Virginia, then splitting on 20 May with his inevitable Oregon victory versus her likely Kentucky victory that same night.
Done that way they both could go out on a high note. But the question that remains now is this:
Who will be Obama's Vice President?
And as for the mayor, clearly there was something going on that he didn't want to reveal. I argue for transparent government everywhere, so I too was annoyed.
I agree with comrade kevin. I think she'll concede after she has a big win in West Virginia.
Did it seem to anyone else that the media was reporting heavily on the exit polls while the actual voting was still going on? Didn't that used to be banned, or at least universally frowned upon?
I couldn't agree more with the non-explanation the Gary mayor gave CNN. I hope he, and whoever was in charge of releasing the numbers are gone long before November comes around.
As for releasing the exit polling, I don't know about the 24 hour "news" channels, because I didn't turn to them until after 6 central, by which time Indiana polls had closed. On NBC's nightly news, the only exit polling I saw was demographic data because the story they want to tell is race and gender based.
Hillary's best bet is to concede and join Obama's team as his VP running mate.
BAC-
I had something to to say to you on my blog this morning. Please take it as an apology of sorts. Just because I've come to support Obama in this election doesn't mean I don't feel bad about how this played out and for all of you who've worked so hard for Clinton.
As an Oregon resident I'm a little stunned that my primary vote might not just actually mean something but it could help towards the determination of our party's candidate.
This is the first time I remember this ever happening.
Well, it's been a long road, and I'm guessing we're near the end. I do hope that she and Obama can be on the same ticket--I mean, they'd be unbeatable. Otherwise, I fear that McCain will somehow steal the election from Obama. I don't see Hillary letting that happen if she's involved.
There are a couple of things to remember here concerning Senator Clinton.
(1) The race is still quite close. It's remotely possible that the superdelegates could realize that Obama can't win the general election, and vote her the nomination -- especially if she does extremely well in the remaining contests and narrows the gap again. This is very unlikely and would certainly have explosive repercussions, but it's not completely impossible.
(2) Obama almost certainly can't win the general election. This is not something anyone should be happy about -- I'd far rather see Obama make those upcoming Supreme Court appointments than see McCain make them -- but it's a fact. If McCain becomes President, Clinton will certainly be a strong contender in 2012. She'll only be 64 then, and given the vigor she's shown in this campaign, no one will be arguing that she's too old.
Dean Wormer - what you are feeling is exactly why I don't see this extended primary season as a bad thing. As Sen. Clinton said today at an event I just attended: "The pundits and some of the Democratic leadership need to just calm down and realize that if I can go into NH behind in the race -- and in 14 days end up winning we can WIN the White House in November."
She's right.
In an election season a week is like a month. There is no reason why the Dems shouldn't win in November. My only fear is that the less strong of the two current contenders will end up as the nominee and the battle will therefore be much harder to win.
And if you look at the primary season as a whole, these two candidates are virtually tied. Neither can win without the support of superdelegates. So it's imperative that the super delegates take a long hard look at who is best positioned to beat McCain in the fall.
I think, hands down, that person is Hillary Clinton.
BAC
It is pretty cool that I have a say.
Without trying to open the can of worms of Michigan/ Florida I can say I would like to see this election lead to reform in the primary system for choosing our candidate. I think we can all agree it's just as messed up as it can be.
It would be great if some of the later voter states actually had a say in the nominee. I'm not just talking about when it gets down to just two, btw.
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