Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Big win for Hillary

There's no mistaking it - West Virginia loves it some Hillary!

Every indicator had predicted this victory for Clinton; and judging from Howard Wolfson's studied practice on CNN tonight of repeatedly labeling West Virginia a "key swing state", it appears Hillary's crew was also quite aware of their imminent landslide.

I think he might also have mentioned in passing that "no Democrat since Woodrow Wilson has won the White House without winning West Virginia" a couple of times.

At least.

But hey, repetition is a proven strategy when struggling to make a mountain out of a delegate-poor molehill. With 28 committed delegates at play there, tonight's results might give Hillary a 20-8, or even a 21-7 edge. Which will do very little to change the substantial delegate lead that Barack Obama currently enjoys.

But it will help ensure that Hillary will stay in the race until at least the DNC Rules & Bylaws committee decides how to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates at the national convention. That meeting is going to occur at the end of the month, and there's probably no reason for her to pull out before the Puerto Rico caucus on June 1st (which she'll win equally as decisive as tonight), and the final primaries on June 3rd for South Dakota and Montana.

Which is fine, as long as both candidates keep the really negative attacks focused on John McCain rather than each other.

Because ONE of these two Democrats will eventually need to have enough support from the ENTIRE electorate if we're going to keep "Bush the Third" out of the White House.

4 comments:

Jonathan Kantrowitz said...

South Dakota and Montana must have LOTS of delegates at stake - I'm sure they are key swing states too.

Bob Symmes said...

She nearly won the "key swing" territory of Guam, too.

Watch out for the "key swing" territory of Puerto Rico, too.

Let's get real, here: even Larry Craig could have this much "swing" in a men's room.

Anonymous said...

A big whoosh of the deflating hot air balloon in Hillaryland as Edwards steps up to the plate and endorses Obama, live on the evening news tonight.
Seriously exquisite timing.
oldswede

CT Bob said...

I'm also impressed with Edwards' timing. Wow. Talk about raining on Hillary's parade!