Obama 10 & 0 after Super Tuesday

After Super Tuesday, 5th February, Sen. Barack Obama gained significant momentum on the campaign trail by winning 10 straight primaries in different parts of the country. As for Sen. Hillary Clinton, she gave the world lame excuses for why her defeat in some states does not affect her campaign. In Iowa, she said it was a small state. In South Carolina, she said that Obama's victory was expected as there was a large African American population. In southern states like Alabama, she dismissed that defeat on the grounds that it was in the South. She then claims that states like Utah and Missouri as unimportant as they are traditional Republican states in the general elections. She calls states that hold caucuses like Washington State and Nebraska, as unsuitable terrain for Hillary.

Funny, she has won an early caucuses state, Nevada. In fact, former President Bill Clinton told the press about the campaign's intention to fight the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union regarding their strong arm tactics to force their members to support Obama after he heard horror stories from some members who were sympathetic to Hillary. Furthermore, the Clinton campaign went to court to stop caucuses from being held in casinos in a blatant attempt to prevent those union workers supporting Obama from going to the caucuses. That lawsuit was filed on the pre-text that it would be sending a bad signal to young people about gambling. I say give me a break. This is Las Vegas; casinos in Vegas are like Starbucks in New York or cornfields in Nebraska. Everyone knows what Vegas are famous for.

Hillary's assertions about her inability to win in the South are complete trash talk. She won convincingly in Arkansas and Tennessee. One would expect her to win in Arkansas given her and Bill's deep ties when they were First Family. However, that does not explain why she won Oklahoma or Tennessee. At the same time, she does not dismiss those victories as unimportant or strategically insignificant because of the location of those states or the fact that Republicans have dominated these states in a general election.

Speaking of strategically insignificant states, strictly in the context of this primary season, Michigan and Florida came to mind. These were two states that held their primaries early and the candidates agreed not to campaign there and both Obama and former Sen. John Edwards even took the trouble of taking their names of the Michigan ballots. The National Committee in response stripped these states of their delegates. Hillary agreed early on that Michigan and Florida should be punished for not following the Party's primary calendar. Yet, once she has won those states, she now opposes the idea of stripping of their delegates because they are "major states". She openly said that she will fight for the delegates from Michigan and Florida to be seated and voting in the Convention. This is the biggest U-turn I have seen since Bill Clinton admission of having sex with Monica Lewinski.

I frankly expected her to say in those victory speeches that she was honored to have won and thank the voters for the victory, but she is saddened that the state party has chosen to disenfranchise the voters in this fashion by having the primary ahead of schedule. More importantly she would not accept those delegates as she had earlier made a pledge supporting Howard Dean's decision to strip them of their delegates. She could have told her supporters in those states that, as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher so famously said this lady is not for turning.

She has lost 10 straight contests in various parts of the country. I am convinced that her key supporters are Latinos and Asians like what happened in California, New Mexico and Arizona. I really do not know where she will find the sort of coalition that could defeat Obama. Frankly, I hope she will quit the race should she loose Ohio or Texas. Even if she wins both states by very narrow margins, she should still quit as whatever remains will not be to her advantage. It is time that she shows some grace and clears the way for Obama to bring the Democratic Party togather to fight Sen. John McCain. Bear in mind, the Party is ill-served by having a badly wounded nominee going into the general election like Hubert Humphrey in 1968 or a divided party like what happened with the Republicans in 1976 after Gerald Ford narrowly defeating then former governor Ronald Reagan.