So, it’s Wednesday morning, Hillary won by a comfortable margin… now what? Her campaign is struggling for funds and nationally voters have decided her opponent is better. Where does she go from here?
“Some people counted me out and said to drop out, but the American people don’t quit, and they deserve a president who doesn’t quit either,” Clinton told cheering supporters last night at the Park Hyatt Philadelphia at the Bellevue. “Because of you, the tide is turning.”With the support of Gov. Rendell, Mayor Nutter and much of the Democratic establishment, Clinton had been expected to carry the state, but the better-funded Obama was able to unleash an avalanche of television commercials and shave her lead in opinion polls.
Despite Clinton’s win, Obama remains the front-runner for the nomination, with a significant overall delegate lead and a huge financial advantage. She also has few primaries left in which to overtake him.
cenpendem
Heaven help us if we have to listen to that cackle two more weeks. Pa was a perfect demographic for her, the second oldest population in the nation and large numbers of uneducated blue collars who, cause I know many of them, are closet racists looking for any excuse not to vote for the black man (like my elderly mother, unfortunately).
Voter demographics
Well, that’s not much of an excuse, but it is exactly the same spin I’m listening to from David Axlerod right now on NPR ME.
I think Obama’s inability to carry much outside of the liberal end of the Dem base or to make inroads in the other part of the base is worrisome.
pd
girl power
it’s too easy to blame HRC’s PA win on racism. Did you see her margin of victory with women voters? She always had this constituency locked up. What were they supposed to do, disappear into the night just because Barack Obama showed up? It’s interesting to see the Dem party, self proclaimed all-inclusive, fracture along sex and race fault lines.
Also, Obama was handily defeated in Bucks County, something like a 65-35 margin. Bucks county, you know, that bastion of blue collar voters and closed steel mills.
Oh what a wonderful morning
Hillary is now ahead in the popular vote and she has won all the big states except Illinois!
There’s still more we can do to get this amazing woman as our next president. A bunch of us are donating $5 (or more, or less) for every point she wins by. She’s attracted lots of new donors already. Just go to hillaryclinton.com to contribute.
Off to do another happy dance . . .
open the doors, and your eyes
PA was a closed primary. Obama has great results in races where independents are free to vote. Keep in mind, when the general election comes around… independents will vote for Obama, not for Clinton.
There were lots of new Dems
Sorry, but that spin/argument doesn’t really hold water. PA Dems set a record for registrations this spring. I’m sure a fair number of those were switchers from I to D.
pd
pd - face the facts
A fair number of new Dems were republicans who switched to democrat, and independent who switched to democrat. Setting a record does not HOLD WATER as an argument. Just because a record is set, does not mean Clinton would have won in an open primary. So SORRY PD, you are quite wrong to accuse me of being wrong.
Um, no, wrong again
Your argument is that Obama is so inspiring, he brings new voters into the Dem fold. It follows that, in Pennsylvania, those voters became Dems to vote for him.
That shows in the registration numbers. The only thing an open primary might have done was make it a little easier for the non-partisan voters. It doesn’t follow
that he would have gotten more, or fewer, votes in an open contest.
pd
Limbaugh
We still don’t know the effect of Rush Limbaugh and Hannity urging their listeners to switch to dem so they could vote for Hillary. It was significant in Ohio and Texas and the western part of the state border Ohio and very similar demographically.
McBush and Republicans must be happy today!
McBush and the Republicans must be extremely happy after yesterday’s primary. The blood-letting among Democrats will continue longer while McBush has a longer time to build support. Democrats are working real hard to throw the election to McBush.
This is tame
Really, both Obama and Clinton are just tapping each other. There’s no blood-letting at all between them. Heck, they both acknowledge there’s hardly any difference at all in their policies. They both said the other can win when asked.
Both candidates are free to attack McCain and the Rs and I personally have heard Clinton doing that at the end of her campaign here.
And, looking at the R primary results here, I don’t think it bodes very well for McCain, that running essentially unopposed, he got only about 72% of the vote.
pd
Not a fair test of McCain's strength...
PD –
I know McSame lost support to Huckabee and Paul, but I don’t think we should read too much into that. Voter knew that their votes were essentially pointless, so I think many voted for the fringy candidates (don’t me that pejoratively, folks..) as a way of making a statement, rather than as a litmus test for what they’ll do in November.
And yea, I think one thing that’s happened is that the Democrats are being manhandled on the battle of the talking points. There have been a few body blows and a couple of attacks that needed a good corner man, but the real fight is yet to come. The problem is that, as I see it, many people don’t have the stomach for the primary fight. They want everyone to just play nice and shut up and go away.
From the Democrats standpoint, we need to be saying, “Hey, we are just having a good ole primary fight here. That’s what America is all about. OUR side embraces dissent and different ideas and a little raucous behavior. We have to paint the GOP as stiff and unyielding (not hard) and that they decided on their candidate, not because he is the best man for the job, but because he is the MOST LIKE GEORGE BUSH.
Get that meme out there and hammer it every chance you get.
Pllt
Oh, and I found this blog that just seems to be getting started, but it certainly is on to the “third term” thing. http://www.bushsthirdterm.com
Good points
I don’t necessarily disagree with your theory about not-McCain voters, but I think it does show his support among Rs might be fairly soft.
I do agree with your strategy for the primaries. Maybe the Dems will listen!
pd