Bucks
Dear Friends,
Good morning. Well I have egg all over my face. Last week’s Democratic primary demonstrated what Mighty Betsy’s been saying for decades…“Charlie’s often wrong but never in doubt!”
I predicted that Barack Obama would pull off an upset victory over Hillary Clinton in the Pennsylvania Democratic Primary. While it’s true that Obama shaved her 20 plus point margin to 10 points, nonetheless, Clinton won convincingly. She’s still in the race although she’s way behind in the accumulated popular vote and delegate count.
Locally, Obama won Chester, Lehigh, Montgomery, and Northampton Counties, plus Philadelphia. But Bucks County and the western and northeastern parts of the state landed in Clinton’s column by overwhelming numbers. To my surprise, Clinton trounced Obama by a nearly two to one spread.
Here in Bucks County, Congressman Patrick Murphy garnered 93,823 votes compared to his Republican challenger, Tom Manion’s 33,615. It will be tough sledding for the GOP in the fall.
Arch-conservative radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, claims that his strategy, dubbed “Operation Chaos,” sparked Clinton’s victory. Limbaugh urged conservative Republicans to change their party registration to Democrat and vote for Clinton. Limbaugh believes that U.S. Senator John McCain will have an easier road to victory if Clinton is his opponent.
I doubt Limbaugh.
I know quite a few Republican switchers (M.B. and I included). They and we became Democrats for the sole reason of supporting either Clinton or Obama. Pennsylvania has a closed primary system. Unlike Indiana (one of the next state primaries), Pennsylvanians can vote only in their party’s primary.
Unless
On the other hand, if Obama maintains his significant lead in the primaries and delegates, he’ll still lack the delegate strength to win at convention time.
And remember, even though Obama lost Pennsylvania, he picked up 73 delegate votes (Clinton garnered 82). Yes, Clinton won the Keystone state by 216,000 votes, but she’s still behind Obama by 500,000 [votes] nationwide.
Clinton is running out of primaries and money. However, she knows that the super delegates will determine the victor when the convention convenes. Super delegates are the special Democrats…Governors, U. S. Senators, congress people, party bigwigs, etc. Congressman Patrick Murphy, an Obama supporter, and Governor Ed Rendell, who backs Clinton, are super delegates.
In my opinion, that should swing the pendulum in Clinton’s favor because no one knows politics in the trenches better than Bill Clinton. And his wife is a fast learner.
If you were Barack Obama, how would you conduct the rest of your campaign? Would you participate in debates with Hillary Clinton? Would mud slinging help your cause?
I get a big kick out of Curtis
Sliwa, the
Sliwa’s a McCain backer and discounts criticism of McCain’s senior citizen status. “Pope Benedict is 81 and going strong,” Sliwa quipped. “McCain’s only 71, a comparative youngster.” Sliwa wonders whether age will become a factor just as gender and race have? We’ll have to stay tuned.
Many believe that the Clinton-Obama debate in Philadelphia helped Clinton. Personally, I think that the moderators were terrible and didn’t help journalism’s sagging image one bit. For example, they questioned Obama for his decision not to wear an American flag pin in his lapel but didn’t question Clinton…and neither newsman wore an American flag pin.
We heard 45 minutes of old stuff. Instead, the moderators should have asked both candidates to spell out how they would get out of Iraq…how to rid America’s dependence on Middle East Oil…how they would address universal health care and pay for it…how to improve public education so American students can compete with their foreign competition, in the global economy?
My bet today is that the fall race will be Clinton versus McCain, and age will be a factor. Clinton will choose Obama for a running mate. For those who think that a Clinton-Obama ticket…the so called “dream team”…couldn’t happen, does anyone remember the bitter primary fights between John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson in 1960…or the acrimonious 1980 Republican battle between Ronald Reagan and the first George Bush? After the dust settled, JFK and LBJ were on the same ticket. So were Reagan and Bush.
I’ll close with this joke about age. Someone noted that the last digit in McCain’s social security number is three. If so, who’s number one and two? Answer…Adam and Eve.
That’s a joke, friends.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith