Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Well, it came and went.

On the GOP side, Romney is like another Mass. pretty boy, Tom Brady, the Patriots' Quarterback. John McCain went New York Giants on Romney, pounding him, sacking him, knocking him down, until by the end of the game, Romney felt like Tom Brady. He was lying on the ground, battered and bruised, looking out his earhole.

Sure, Romney completed a few short passes, winning his home states of Mass., and Utah, which is heavily Mormon, and a few caucus. But Romney is now fresh out of home states, and has yet to win a PRIMARY (as opposed to a caucus, in which money and organization matter more) in a state other than one of his 3 home states (Michigan, where his father was governor, and Utah, which is heavily mormon, are the others).

In the end, like the New York Giants, McCain won the big ones, winning the winner take all states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Missouri and his home state of Arizona, as well as decisively winning the biggest state of them all in American politics, California.

McCain will be the GOP nominee barring a heart attack or the like. I knew it, and you all out there knew it a few weeks ago, and everyone knows it now. Apparently neither Romney nor Huckabee will drop out right away, but Romney just doesn't have enough support to render effective opposition, and Huckabee probably won't win another state, except for perhaps Mississippi and maybe Louisiana. Its McCain.

The democratic side is MUCH more interesting. My girl Hillary did very well in some of the big states, winning huge in NY, winning stunningly big in California, (10 points), and winning convincingly in Mass (15 points), and New Jersey (10 points). She also won Tennessee and a few others. Obama had his strengths, to say the very least, destroying Hillary in his home state of Illinois (she was born and raised there, but like Al Gore long ago lost touch with her home state), Missouri (by the very slimmest of margins), and winning big in Georgia, the critical November state of Colorado (by an amazing 35 points) and a bunch of others.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/

In short, last night, for all of the action, was basically a tie, and settled precisely nothing. At the moment, Clinton apparently leads in delegates by about 80 with 2,025 needed for nomination, a microscopic lead. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/democratic_delegate_count.html

The next several races favor Obama from what I have read, so we should be looking at pretty much a tie for a while. The big states of Texas (where I would expect Clinton to do extremely well due to the high latino population) and Ohio loom on March 4, the next BIG BIG day in the campaign for the democrats. A week from yesterday, the 12th, is what is being dubbed the Potomac primary, with Maryland, DC and Virginia all voting. Virginia is red state target # 2 (behind Colorado) in November, so a lot of the pundits will examine Virginia very closely.

Virginia barely matters. This is now a race for delegates, and a race that, worryingly, looks like it may go all the way to the Convention. The Convention begins on August 25th, and its possible that the race will be so close that neither concedes before then. One would imagine that this would be a nightmare for the democrats as the GOP unites behind the strong McCain.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

so if it's not decided by the convention, what happens? Forgive me, but I'm completely ignorant of what happens at a convention when the nominee is not a foregone conclusion. Ignore HilaryBama and Draft Gore?!? :0)

otherwise, please don't compare my beloved Giants to any republican (other than maybe Lincoln). Remember, it's the Big BLUE Wrecking Crew, not Big Red.

NC doesn't hold its primary until May. I never thought a NC presidential primary would be relevant.

Daniel N said...

Bryan:

I have no idea what happens at a brokered convention. Google that phrase. It hasn't happened in decades, so no one REALLY knows. Drafting Gore is out of the question, unlike the GOP the dems are VERY VERY happy with Hill-Bama.

More likely (I hope) is that one or the other pulls slightly ahead and convinces the other to step aside (possibly in return for the # 2 slot). But a long, protracted, divisive, disspiriting fight between Hill and O looks increasingly likely. :-(

Anonymous said...

that divisive battle is the biggest impediment, methinks, to them both appearing on the same ticket. If they keep it clean, maybe they have a future together. We're the touchy feely party; we should send them to counseling.

Anonymous said...

One thing to bear in mind in all of this ..... The mainstream press is reporting that Hill is having real money problems. Apparently she spent buckets of cash in Iowa and is running low on new sources. That's likely a problem in the next few months.

I suspect (not at all sure) that the last brokered convention was the one that produced Humphrey in 68 after RFK was assassinated. We all know how well that turned out.

Justin

Anonymous said...

I'm wrong on 68 .....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brokered_convention

Justin