This morning, the Clinton campaign came out with their most ridiculous line of reasoning yet. The campaign released a memo saying that Barack Obama should sweep the March 4th primary states (Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island, Vermont), and if he doesn’t, “there’s a problem.” Thus the Clinton team has begun their next, and perhaps last, political strategy: raising expectations for their rival campaign to unreachable heights.
Although Obama holds a lead in the polls in Texas and Vermont, Ohio will be much tougher for the Senator. One should remember that Clinton held huge leads in states like Texas and Wisconsin (which recently went for Obama by 17%) until recently, and the fact that Obama is within 10 points in Ohio, a state which matches up very well for the Clintons, is a testament to the strength of his campaign.
With the hot, passionate nights of the Republican primaries over, conservatives all across America are waking up the next morning and asking, “Oh God, what did I do?” First it was Ann Coulter who proclaimed on Hannity & Colmes that she would rather campaign for Hillary than vote for McCain. Libertarian-leaning Republican Andrew Sullivan has leant his unequivocal support to Obama and the anti-war conservative Justin Raimondo stopped just short of endorsing him in his own blog. Just the other day, a conservative Ohio radio host declared that he has “had it up to here” with John McCain and will never support him. And of course, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have been less than favorable. (more…)
The press, just like my colleague Jeremy Barr below, is starting to call for Hillary Clinton’s withdrawal from the race. Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter wrote a scathing column titled “Hillary Should Get Out Now.” He argues that this is her last chance for a graceful exit and for her own political future should get out of the race, despite the fact that personally Alter would love for the race to go on. He writes:
Withdrawing would be stupid if Hillary had a reasonable chance to win the nomination, but she doesn’t…Hillary has only one shot—for Obama to trip up so badly that he disqualifies himself. Nothing in the last 14 months suggests he will.
But Alter is not the only one being critical of Hillary. (more…)
With Senator Barack Obama being called the “Democratic front-runner” more and more frequently these days, the question now turns to when he will be able to call himself the Democratic nominee. March 4th’s contests in Ohio and Texas may help to edge Obama closer to the title, as anything short of a resounding victory would essentially be a loss for Senator Hillary Clinton.
If Clinton doesn’t make a stand in Ohio and Texas, I think that she should consider bowing out of the race. Increasingly it seems that the Democratic Party is uniting behind Barack Obama in the form of 26 states, 1,202 elected delegates, the endorsement of key party officials, and the support of the country’s biggest labor organizations.
The New York Times is running a damming 2,800 word article about Senator John McCain’s his past ties with lobbyists in Thursday’s edition. Even though the McCain campaign has called it “tabloid journalism” it seems to be meticulously researched with four reporters on the byline and two additional researchers listed. Regardless of if the main implication of the article is true–that McCain had an affair with a lobbyist in 2000 and then tried to intervene on behalf of her clients–it shows a very different side of the crusader against lobbyists and special interests we have come to known. (more…)
On the eve of the Wisconsin Democratic primary (and with Ohio and Texas in the near future), the leading Democratic candidates for president have begun to hit each other hard. One of the biggest debates this cycle has been about the difference between “going negative” and simply differentiating the records of the two candidates.
Over the past few months, Mike Huckabee has been on an emotional rollercoaster. Once written off as dead for a lack of funds and poor showing in most polls, he made a comeback that eventually resulted in a victory in Iowa. Some went so far as to predict a Huckabee win propelled by decent poll showings in Michigan and South Carolina. Now, however, strapped for cash and plagued by the inability to bring in voters outside of his narrow Evangelical base of support, the Arkansas Governor can merely stand by and watch Republican figures coalesce around the presumed nominee.
In presidential primary politics, almost equally important as actually winning primary contests is spinning the results to look like you have won. If you didn’t win the contest, it’s because the other side was forced to put more time and money into it.
Another trick of the trade is lowering expectations before a primary contest. If you win, it’s a huge victory. If you lose, it’s what you expected and had prepared for.
Last Thursday, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney stunned an enthusiastic crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference when he announced that he was suspending his race for the Presidency. The news came in light of several remarkable victories for his two chief rivals, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Senator John McCain of Arizona, just two days earlier. Romney cited his support for the Iraq War, claiming that his presence in the race would serve only as a distraction and might threaten to tear the Republican base apart when needed most. (more…)
Barack Obama had a clean sweep yesterday winning Washington, Louisiana, and Nebraska by large margins. He could very well win every contest between now and March 4 (when Ohio and Texas, among others vote). That would mean Hillary Clinton would have gone almost a month without a victory. Her campaign is being dismissive of these losses claiming that Obama is expected to win in these states. This may be true, but you cannot just dismiss all of these states. They are still real states with real delegates and Hillary’s loses are very much real.
She is waiting for March 4, when she feels she can win Ohio and Texas, the two largest states left. Because she is focusing on these states, she claims not to care about these loses. This is the exactly same strategy Rudy Giuliani pursued before he dropped out of the race. (more…)
Columnists at The Emory Wheel, Emory University's student newspaper, provide up-to-date news and commentary on the presidential campaigns. Click here for information on the blog's three contributors.
