Left, for the last two days, Senator Obama has worn a flag lapel pin, proving he doesn’t hate America. Right, with Mississippi so goes the nation?
Political Round-up
Oh yeah, there was primary last night too. Hillary Clinton won West VA by a 2-1 margin, forcing NYT’s national political deity Adam Nagourney to write:
How big a problem does Senator Barack Obama really have among white working-class voters? And what —if anything — can he do about it as he heads into the general election? Those were the questions that emerged from his defeat by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the West Virginia Democratic primary on Tuesday…In West Virginia, 20 percent of respondents said that race was a factor in their decision and those voters, by overwhelming number, backed Mrs. Clinton.
What the results from West Virginia and Pennsylvania did do was crystallize just how important Mrs. Clinton could be to Mr. Obama’s general election hopes, assuming he goes on to win the nomination.
She has managed to connect with white, blue-collar voters in way that has eluded Mr. Obama. Her embrace of Mr. Obama once this is over — delivered without reservation and accompanied by vigorous campaigning through the fall — could make it far easier for him to win the backing of white voters who have come to embraced Mrs. Clinton as their champion.
I’ve said for some time that without the full support of the Clintons, America’s first family of GOP hate, it will be much harder to make a case that McCain is Dr Evil this fall. In a CNN poll of Democrats, over 55% supported a joint Obama-Clinton ticket, with over 30% saying no, and a further 17% undecided. (75% of Clinton backers want her VP as do 40% of Obama’s.) “The bottom line is this: The White House is won in the swing states, and I am winning the swing states,” Clinton said in her victory speech. TNR argues against a joint ticket, but I disagree:
…the working-class whites who vote in Democratic primaries are often very different from the working-class whites who don’t. In particular, Hillary may be as disliked by the latter as she is beloved by the former.
Now, there is clearly a subset of working-class whites who aren’t high on Obama either. (Race may be a factor, as my colleague John Judis writes this week.) The problem is that the working-class whites who don’t like Obama may be different from the ones who don’t like Hillary, in which case you risk alienating two groups of working-class whites by putting her on the ticket.
“Often” “may be”…not convincing language in the unprecedented 2008 race. You can’t use conventional wisdom this year beacuse we’ve never had a black man and a woman involved. New emotions and values are at play. Still, if the majority of Dems want a joint ticket, democracy dictates you go with the will of the people.
But the biggest political news of the day comes from Mississippi, where Democrat Travis Childers handily beat GOP candidate Greg Davis for a House seat in Trent Lott’s district. The seat has been Republican since 1994. The WSJ reports:
The defeat is another blow to congressional Republicans following the two prior losses in Illinois and Louisiana special elections. The losses have also come at a hefty price, as the National Republican Congressional Committee, the party’s campaign arm, was forced to funnel millions of dollars to unsuccessfully defend the three seats.
The outcome could also increase doubts about Republicans’ broader election strategy to nationalize House races by negatively tying local candidates to figures such as Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.That strategy was used in the Mississippi race, as well as in early May in the Louisiana House race against Democrat Don Cazayoux, who defeated Republican Woody Jenkins.
If race-baiting didn’t work in Mississippi, a state with a long history of negro-hating, hopefully it won’t work in the general election either.
The quote below sums up how big a loss this was to the GOP, via POLITICO:
A GOP House leadership aide told Politico last week that “if we don’t win in Mississippi, I think you are going to see a lot of people running around here looking for windows to jump out of.”
Overall, today is great day for America.
TAGS: Barack Obama, Congress, election, GOP, Hillary, Hillary Clinton, joint ticket, mccain, NATO, NPR, obama, pennsylvania, political, Politics, Race, Republicans
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