Three possible outcomes for today’s vote in West Virginia:
1. It's dismissed by the media as too little, too late for Clinton and doesn't change a thing or 2. It’s dismissed because West Virginia voters are (allegedly) “bigoted” and doesn't change a thing or 3. Clinton’s margin of victory is so big it reignites doubts about Obama's ability to win working class white voters in Rust Belt states and moves the narrative slightly back in Clinton's direction.
Given the media adulation for Obama, and its repeated haste to declare him the winner—as far back as the eve of the New Hampshire primary—we predict some combination of the first two, even though #3 will be in play.
After all, Obama has the current cover of Time Magazine as “the winner” even though the contest is not officially over (nor does either candidate have the number of pledged delegates to declare victory, as McCain did the night Huckabee finally dropped out), and almost all of the media pundits have declared the race “over”. Heck, we have even declared the contest “over”.
But consider this May 10 blog post from Jake Tapper, ABC News' Senior National Correspondent writing for Political Punch:
1. It's dismissed by the media as too little, too late for Clinton and doesn't change a thing or 2. It’s dismissed because West Virginia voters are (allegedly) “bigoted” and doesn't change a thing or 3. Clinton’s margin of victory is so big it reignites doubts about Obama's ability to win working class white voters in Rust Belt states and moves the narrative slightly back in Clinton's direction.
Given the media adulation for Obama, and its repeated haste to declare him the winner—as far back as the eve of the New Hampshire primary—we predict some combination of the first two, even though #3 will be in play.
After all, Obama has the current cover of Time Magazine as “the winner” even though the contest is not officially over (nor does either candidate have the number of pledged delegates to declare victory, as McCain did the night Huckabee finally dropped out), and almost all of the media pundits have declared the race “over”. Heck, we have even declared the contest “over”.
But consider this May 10 blog post from Jake Tapper, ABC News' Senior National Correspondent writing for Political Punch:
“Doesn't look good anecdotally for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in West Virginia this Tuesday.
“Party insiders say Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., might beat him in the Mountaineer State on Tuesday by 30 points.
“Yikes!
“You want to know why superdelegates are trickling but not stampeding to Obama's side? His electoral weaknesses with white working-class voters, as evidenced by this pending stompage.”
WHERE DO WE STAND?
We too believe that its “over”—meaning that in all likelihood Obama will be the Democratic nominee. But we admire Hillary Clinton’s resilience, we believe that the media was biased against her from the beginning, and think that she has gotten a bad rap in the media by (wrongfully) placing the “race card” jacket on her for simply discussing the same exit polling data that Team Obama extolled when he was winning over “white voters” (and that the media has been reporting for months).
Therefore, we hope it is a 40 point blow-out victory for Clinton today in West Virginia! "Pending stompage"--kind of has a nice ring to it.....
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