The latest LA Times Poll gives a national advantage by a few points to John McCain. John McCain. 10,000 years more of war. Extension of Bush tax cuts. War with Iran... If that's not scary, then I don't know what is.
I believe that Hillary Clinton, and more so her campaign operatives, are in part responsible for McCain's recent up tick.
Though I don't wish to insult Hillary's supporters, basic math proves that she has no chance to capture the nomination at this point, especially after last night's debate where there is consensus that she did not deliver a knock-out punch to derail Obama's momentum. As has been repeated ad nauseum, Clinton would need to win at about 65% in the upcoming March 4 races, and then sweep the rest of the races to even come close to running even with Obama on the pledged delegate count. It would obviously take the seating of the Florida and Michigan delegates without any votes going to Obama from Michigan, plus superdelegates to override Obama's pledged delegate lead.
It seems that the US press is suffering from "New Hampshire syndrome," in that they don't wish to call the race for Obama lest they be proven wrong by Clinton. But, as I just stated above, this cannot and will not happen. The foreign press seems to understand this a bit better. Justin Webb, on his BBC blog coyly states, "Omigod. He won and nobody's even noticed..."
Justin Webb's BBC blog
Webb uses the following quote from Jonathan Alter in Newsweek:
"The pundit class hasn't been quicker to point all this out because of what happened in New Hampshire. A lot of us looked foolish by all but writing Hillary off when she lost the Iowa caucuses. As we should have known, stuff happens in politics. But that was early. The stuff that would have to happen now would be on a different order of magnitude. It's time to stop overlearning the lesson of New Hampshire."
Instead, Hillary decided to throw the "kitchen sink" at Obama over the weekend and tried to do the same, albeit unsuccessfully, in last night's debate. As was echoed in comments, her attacks seemingly mirrored those of McCain.
I'm sure that Hillary would agree that after 8 years of George W. Bush we cannot afford his third term via John McCain. However, by attacking Obama using the same talking points as McCain, she is only helping to validate those points and sully Obama for the general election. I think that many in the party are starting to realize this, as we saw Chris Dodd endorse Obama. Dodd, who used the same experience argument as Hillary, and who i always thought would naturally gravitate towards her campaign after dropping out, realized the need for the party to pull together under one nominee: Barack Obama.
The Clinton camp seems to realize the tide is turning as well as they are attempting to stop the presumed wave of upcoming superdelegate endorsements for Obama.
Lately, its been said that Clinton is relying on a very small cadre of advisors. Hopefully she will soon realize that the nomination is lost and that the best move for the Democratic Party, for the United States, and selfishly for her personal political career, is for her to graciously concede and support Obama.
If she refuses to do this in the coming days, I urge the party establishment to rally around Obama and force this to happen. I urge Senator Edwards and Governor Richardson to endorse Obama. I urge Hillary to go back to being the junior senator from the great state of New York. Lastly, I urge the American people to embrace change so that we don't have another 4 years of the George W. Bush's America.