Thursday, February 21, 2008

Short Notes on Obama/Clinton

My apologies for the dearth of posting as of late. I'm getting ready for an exam that will determine that extent of my professional career and livelihood, and I can only assume my comrades have lives of their own and are off frolicking instead of blogging like they should be. Still, there are a few things in the news today I'd like to mention quickly. First is this McClatchy article entitled "How Hillary Clinton blew a sure thing" (so you know where they're coming from right off the bat.) The article tends to focus on mistakes and supposed mistakes of the Clinton campaign, but I think it has the benefit of hindsight. If Clinton goes down to defeat in the primaries, I think it will have more to do with Obama having the "right man at the right time" thing going for him, as well as a general repudiation of the establishment that Clinton is-rightly or wrongly-perceived to represent.

Second, another article in McClatchy speculates about how more African-Americans than Hispanics may turn out to vote in the primary on March 4th. Given the number of Hispanics that live in Texas compared to the number of African-Americans (36% to 12% of the population, roughly speaking), and given that just the other day the discussion was about how the delegate selection process disfavors Hispanics who turn out in big numbers for the primaries, this seems like an intriguing development. So we'll see, but it's food for thought.

UPDATE: We already mentioned how the race is at a dead heat in Texas, but now things appear to be tightening in Ohio and Pennsylvania as well.

UPDATE II: Oh, and McCain is in trouble for some alleged naughtiness. I reserve for future determination whether implications of an extra-marital relationship actually hurts him or not (though my instinct is to say not that much, and for not that long.) Still, the article has inspired an intense swirl of controversy about McCain and how the article came about. And revelations about McCain's hypocritical conduct that are the real meat of the piece could be far more damaging.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Barack Obama's consistently upscale performance over the past few weeks, including the recent win in the Wisconsin primary, seems to have unsettled Hillary Clinton. The former first lady has responded by hinting that the Obama is big on words, but empty on act.