Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Clinton eyes landslide primary win as Obama plans for November

As Hillary prepares for her largest win to date, a 30 point victory in West Virginia, the truth now is that Barack Obama is only 159 delegates short of the 2,025 needed to secure the Democratic nomination.

He now leads in delegates pledged, the popular vote and the super delegates. However, it will surprise no-one to learn that Hillary is pedalling a different narrative.

In a rain-sodden West Virginia, Clinton reiterated her argument that the battle for the Democratic nomination will not end until the final contest on June 3. "It's not over until the lady in the pants suit says it is," she said.

She got that phrase from an email she received from an admirer, but it's one we can expect to hear over and over again.

The lady in the pant suit thinks her sheer force of will can overcome the electorate, the Democratic party and all laws of finance.

Obama, meanwhile, is continuing to simply ignore Clinton and concentrate on the challenges ahead.

Obama, confident of clinching the nomination, made just one visit to West Virginia, choosing to campaign this week in what will be key swing states in November: Missouri, Michigan and Florida.

"Our schedule reflects the fact that we are still fighting for votes and delegates in the remaining contests but also that we are going to places that are going to be competitive in the fall," Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for Obama, told reporters.

"John McCain has gone unchallenged for far too long and we're going to make sure that voters in competitive states know the choice in this election between changing Washington and the third term of George Bush's failed policies that McCain is offering."

Attention continues to move towards the battle between McCain and Obama in the autumn, with Hillary simply sliding to into our peripheral vision as something of an irrelevance.

It's notable that some of Clinton's most rabid supporters, including the utterly deluded Taylor Marsh, have now started arguing that their candidate should be considered for the position of Vice President.

That's an utter non starter.

Leaving aside the fact that Hillary does not think that Obama has crossed the threshold to becoming Commander in Chief which, in her mind, both she and McCain already have; there is the more obvious point that Obama has promised a new kind of politics, something which would be impossible to deliver with Hillary (and, of course, Bill) sitting a few doors down from Obama in the White House.

But it's very significant that Marsh and others have now lowered their expectations to the point where they argue simply for Hillary to be included on the ticket at all.

That fact alone says that this contest is over. The lady in the pants suit is simply being stubborn.

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