Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Clinton comback in doubt

Tonight's primary results from North Carolina and Indiana leave Hillary Clinton without the huge wins she needed in order to continue the "comeback" she's experienced since Pennsylvania two weeks ago.

At 10:30PM, Barack Obama holds a 14-point lead in North Carolina, and Hillary Clinton has a slight lead in Indiana that may decrease even more from the current 4% (Update: it's closer to 2%) she has. Because NC has 115 delegates to the 72 in Indiana, Obama stands to expand his delegate advantage by anywhere from 10 to 25, depending on the breakdown of the voter districts. And this is after two very tough weeks for Obama, considering the Rev. Wright controversy. If he can do this well after that dust-up, I look forward to him doing even better against a weak Republican candidate in the November election.

It's still very early, but these trends are looking very favorable for Obama, and may help the super delegates who have been on the fence make the commitment to Barack. My guess is that by Friday we'll have a very good idea of how the super delegates are thinking.

Clinton will likely stay in the race for the next few primaries and see what the DNC Rules & Bylaws committee decides in regard to the Michigan and Florida situation on May 31st. But if she fails to get a 100% favorable ruling on those states, I can't imagine that she'd stay in the race in some desperate misguided hope for a miracle at the convention.

Listen, I think Hillary Clinton would make a good, decent president; but I think Barack Obama would make a better one.

And it seems like many Democrats are seeing the same thing.

PS - CNN has Lanny Davis on right now, crowing about Clinton's "astounding victory". I hate Lanny Davis. I just do. Davis backed Joe fucking Lieberman all the way up to the general election. He makes my skin crawl!