Interesting story in today’s New York Times. Critical quote:
“She has to win both Ohio and Texas comfortably, or she’s out,” said one superdelegate who has endorsed Mrs. Clinton, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to share a candid assessment. “The campaign is starting to come to terms with that.” Campaign advisers, also speaking privately in order to speak plainly, confirmed this view.
Several Clinton superdelegates, whose votes could help decide the nomination, said Monday that they were wavering in the face of Mr. Obama’s momentum after victories in Washington State, Nebraska, Louisiana and Maine last weekend.
Some said that they, like the hundreds of uncommitted superdelegates still at stake, might ultimately “go with the flow,” in the words of one, and support the candidate who appears to show the most strength in the primaries to come.
One of the quotes in that article had me yelling at my screen — Mark Penn, Clinton’s strategist, said “She has consistently shown an electoral resiliency in difficult situations that have made her a winner,” […] “Senator Obama has in fact never had a serious Republican challenger.”
She’s faced a serious Republican challenger? Who? Rick Lazio? John Spenser? They’re the only Republicans she’s ever run against….a nobody sacrificial lamb who the party threw in when Rudy dropped out the Senate race in 2000 (who she only managed to beat with 55%), and the Mayor of Yonkers. Of course, the average Clinton supporter has no idea about any of that, so Penn’s comment will be blindly accepted at face value.
In related super-delegatish news, check out this new grassroots site: ObamaIsWinning.com, which disputes the media narrative with data. Very interesting….
What’s really encouraging to me is a segment I heard on NPR yesterday where they spoke with a number of Democratic superdelegates and all of them said “This shouldn’t be about us; it should be about what the voters decide.”
That’s another point for government of, by, and for the people.
http://thepage.time.com/halperin%E2%80%99s-take-sixteen-underappreciated-obama-advantages/