She ain't crying today. OK, is it that surprising that she did so well in New Hampshire? Yes, Obama gained a huge boost after Iowa, but the scales tipped so dramaticly that it was a bit of a stretch to think that so many people had changed their mind in a matter of a couple of days. Or were people so much on the fence that they didn't truly decide until they were in the ballot booth? Chris Matthews called it one of the greatest upsets in political history. Really? A candidate who was the frontrunner for over a year dips in the polls a few days before the Primary only to win it, and suddenly she's the comeback kid.
I think the media was so hungry for the possible toppling of the big frontrunner that they began to believe and promote that idea. They were hoping for a Howard Dean "heeya!" meltdown. But that didn't happen. What went wrong with the polls? Couldn't have been the media's fault could it? Nah. There has to be another reason, like racism. Yes, since Obama is black (or at least mostly black, maybe 50/50?) the race card comes to the forefront. But it isn't being used by the Obama campaign - they're progressive enough to think beyond using race as a strategy and thinking the American public (or at least those who aren't still fighting the "Northern Aggression") will rely on it as the only deciding factor - no, the race card is being used by the media as an excuse for their failings. That's right. The media didn't count on New Hampshire being populated by racists, that's why the polls didn't match the results.
OK, let's think about this for a moment in terms of demographics. According to exit polls, more women and registered Democrats voted for Hillary, while more men and registered Independents voted for Obama. Using the logic of the race excuse, women and Democrats are more racist than men and Independents. Blacks shouldn't be afraid of The Man, they should be afraid of The Woman. Jesus, it wasn't like these people were voting for David Duke.
Now, if Obama had won, could the state then be considered sexist because they didn't vote for a woman?
What New Hampshire did (and let's not forget, we're not talking about a whole hell of a lot of delegates here) was promote the preception that this is now a two-person race between Obama and Clinton with Edwards hoping to hold on until February 5.
On the Republican side, which doesn't have as much drama as the Democrats, McCain won the same state primary that he won 8 years ago. You mean to tell me that John McCain had support in New Hampshire? This might be the highlight of McCain's campaign. Despite so many people criticizing McCain's speech last night, I thought it was pretty good, maybe a greatest hits version of past speeches, but still good. Not nearly as good as Obama, I mean holy shit that guy can give an incredible speech. Personally, I think McCain is the only good candidate the Republicans have; but I haven't been too keen on the Republicans in quite some time - and considering the legacy the Bush Administration is leaving behind, it will be a long long time before anything Republican seems really appealing, at least until the moderates get their heads out of their asses and do something besides bending over for the social conservative/big business crony nutcases in the GOP.
So, nothing was settled for the Republicans, other than the continued revealing of Romney's Emperor's New Clothes campaign. Then again, if the top spot continues to go to different candidates with Romney holding steady at number 2 each time, he could still win the nomination. Hey, it's a strategy.
So, onward to Michigan and Nevada. Yippee!
2 comments:
Hillary's the only Dem on the ballot in Michigan due to some quirk. Guess she'll win here.
That's because all you people in Michigan were naughty and the National Dem Committee stripped you of all your delegates. When Edwards and Obama found out, they went on to greener pastures.
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