NYT's: Obama's deft handling of Wright is sealing the deal!!!
Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 04:24:22 PM PDT
Ok, so the actual story was about the dismal superdelegate math, which has turned against Hillary too. Sure, she still leads by 32, but that ain't much of a cushion when 2 or 3 supers seem to be breaking his way per week. The latest is Margaret Campell, a Native American state legislator in Montana, according to the Times. Campell was the 69th superdelegate Obama has picked up since "super" Tuesday, while Clinton has lost a total of 2.
What I found more interesting,however, was the reasons the supers are going for Obama, chief among them being the tough campaign;
Aides said time was actually in Obama's favor. The longer he demonstrates he can withstand the heat of a national campaign, they say, the more willing party leaders seem to be to embrace him.
And in specific, the real tipping point seems to be the matter of Reverend Wright, and how Obama handled it. His deputy campaign manager stated;
most people think he passed the test.
The Times points out that while the Clinton's have been trying to scare the supers away from Obama with Wright fright, they haven't been successful;
Such reasoning didn't dissuade Ms. Campell, who also spoke to Mr. Obama over the weekend. His handling of the Wright episode showed his "strong points" at racial reconciliation, she concluded...
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Sure looks like the whole "Wright" episode has tipped the scales in Obama's favor. This makes sense to me because I think we are in the real GE right now, because there is no way the country is electing another Repug next year, so the Democratic primary is where it's at. All along this has been about Obama, was he for real, was he tough enough, was he up to the job?
The reality is that Hillary never really made any comeback's at all, the voting public simply wasn't sure they were ready to award the presidency to Obama and they hesitated each time they could have done so. In NH, in California, and in Ohio and Texas they hesitated, but each time Hillary came out weaker. And the underlying subconsciouses motives have worked well it seems to me, because it now appears that if you turn the heat up high enough the candidates reveal their true selves whether they want to or not.
With Wright Obama accomplished 3 things; he proved he does have integrity by refusing to throw his pastor to the wolves, he showed grace and courage under fire, and he proved he could provide the unifying leadership he has promised.
He hit the trifecta.
And unfortunately for Hillary, she did too, with Kosovo... dismantling her experience argument while reinforcing the storyline that the Clinton's are unscrupulous all in one go.
The supers are slowly but surely getting on board, hopefully the voters in Penn will follow suit.
Update [2008-4-7 20:19:52 by PLS]: Apparently, according to edgeways, Campbell had to retract her endorsement because of some rules in Montana, but she is still clearly on board I would say.
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