Primary Reflections
How McCain courts the Right while we all focus on the Dems.
Hillary Momentum??? Sure, if it sells.
Barack can't win the big states?
What is John McCain Going to Do Over the next 6 Weeks?
Conventional wisdom is saying McCain will struggle for attention while the Dems fight it out. Not to worry—this is the perfect chance for him to court the far right and cuddle up with them, happy in the knowledge no one is looking too closely. Then, just when the Dems stop bashing each other, he will pop to the surface of the media parade and swerve back to the middle, appealing to all those Independents just looking for a "maverick" moderate to stand behind. Thanks to Hillary for providing this fine opportunity to the Republicans.
Hillary Gets Big Mo from Primaries?
I’ve listened to the incessant media story line that Hillary captured momentum from the Texas and Ohio primaries. It seems that Hillary went from solid double digit leads in Texas and Ohio polls just a few weeks back to almost losing in both states, and probably losing the delegate total in Texas. Since when is it considered a major victory to only lose about 10-15% of your voters in the last couple weeks of an election? Sure it is a good story line to keep the papers selling to say Hillary is back on track, but it seems she barely held her supporters for minor majorities in these primary states. It now looks like this media driven line is working, along with Hillary’s persistence, to drag Barack down where people can be disillusioned by "just another politician" (although he certainly doesn’t sound like one if you listen to his whole speech and not the media soundbites).
Barack Can’t Win the Big States in a General Election?
What is the logic of Clinton supporters claiming Barack will struggle in the traditional (big) states just because he loses to Hillary by a few percentages in the primary? If he is struggling at all, it is in a Democratic primary with a worthy Democratic opponent. I don’t think voters are against him but slightly leaning towards Hillary. And both have a huge number more votes than McCain has received in any of these states like California or New Jersey. Come November (provided this prolonged primary campaign doesn’t shoot them in the foot), the Dems will easily sweep these states with Barack or Hillary. Where Barack offers more hope (beyond his inspiring words) is that he may actually attract some non-Dems in the "purple" states where Hillary will surely struggle (not to mention the Red states where Hillary will draw out the motivated right she does so well to unite). How come this never gets mentioned by the mass media punditocracy?