Watching MSNBC's coverage tonight, I picked up on a very interesting discussion amongst the panelists Eugene Robinson, Pat Buchannan, and Rachel Maddow The most interesting thing about the discussion is that it left me with the feeling that the only thing left for Hillary Clinton to do is destroy the party's chances of success in the fall in a hail mary attempt at the nomination.
More below the fold...
The discussion that piqued my interest was concerning the questions:
- How does Hillary win?
and
- What is the Democratic Party Primary fight about?
These are complimentary questions and it is very important for all of us to understand exactly what to expect in the next few weeks. Buchannan posited that the only way for Hillary to win is by attacking Obama on the issues as being, "outside of the mainstream"; in other words, "too liberal". Maddow retorted that, "Democrats don't fight that way", and insisted that that fight is left to those to the right of center (evidenced by the Huckabee v. McCain v. Romney battle for who is most conservative). The point of the discussion was basically, how can Hillary capture back all of the demographics which are now abandoning her campaign? Check out the Virginia and Maryland exit polls. Adding to all of the constituencies that she has lost, she has now lost WOMEN and lost ground with Latinos.
Virginia
Male (43%) C 32% O 67%
Female (57%) C 41% O 59%
Maryland
Male (38%) C 33% O 62%
Female (62%) C 41% O 55%
Virginia
White (62%) C 49% O 50%
African-American (30%) C 11% O 89%
Latino (5%) C 47% O 53%
Maryland
White (53%) C 52% O 42%
African-American (37%) C 15% O 84%
Latino (4%) C 55% O 45%
So here are my questions to Kossacks:
- Do Dems fight like this? If so, on what issues could Hillary possibly attack Obama?
- If not, what should the Clinton campaign make this fight about? What should the Obama campaign make the fight about?
I will update with some of the more thoughtful answers as they come in.