*Sigh*
As Maureen Dowd points out in her column in today’s Times:
“…. in the end, she had to fend off calamity by playing the female victim, both of Obama and of the press.”
…and by doing so, managed to convince a small percentage of voters that it was worth forgetting her votes to authorize the Iraq war, and her vote to declare Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a ‘terrorist organization’, thereby setting up the next Bush war, already playing out in today’s headlines.
And that small percentage, coupled with the independents who saw Obama’s 10-point lead, decided that he was therefore a foregone conclusion, so they could instead vote for McCain, was enough to give her the state.
The thing that disgusts me about this process? The delegates. Obama’s won IA, and Clinton’s won NH, but she’s got a huge lead in delegates, because of the “super-delegates”: People who have delegate status because of their position or appointment….nearly all of whom were put there by the Clintons. She’s got 183, to Obama’s 78.
And the press isn’t reporting on that, because that would shatter the illusion of the story, and just might make voters realize that they’re being duped into turning this country’s government into a back-and-forth dynasty between the Clintons and the Bushes.
Those are some good observations, there, but I bet it’s more complex than that. For example, this was just on NPR:
“After hearing an incredible, articulate woman who could be President” take a beating from the conservative talk-radio hosts about showing emotion, then reacted by voting for her.
On the other hand, I do bet that the independents going for McCain probably had a big affect.
I didn’t know about the “super-delegates.” What the hell’s that all about?
Here’s the wiki on it: Superdelegates.
In short, it’s actually possible that Clinton can win the nomination, even if Obama or Edwards get more of the publicly-available delegate slots.
…and NOBODY in the press is talking about it.
She does have more superdelegates right now, but the majority are still undecided. According to the Democratic Convention site (http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/2008/01/superdelegate-list.html) she’s only got 155 total right now (both delegates and superdelegates). Obama’s got 71. But you need 2025 to win, so she’s not even at 10%. And there are only 800 or so superdelegates total, so you still need 1200+ regular delegates to win.
In other words, it’s still anybody’s ballgame.