email at 47west63rd@gmail.com

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Its over but no one realizes it? (if a tree falls and no one hears it...)

I'm rather exasperated with this election. I look forward to some time away from the politically charged and rarefied Washington DC air.

I think what is most frustrating is that the election has essentially been over since mid February and yet we continue to have these distractions on issues of race or elitism. By all logical interpretation Hillary Clinton needs to make up the difference to a large extent with super delegates and - in spite of all the distractions- Barack Obama is now within 20 super delegates of Hillary with less than 300 outstanding of which about 60-70 are off the table as they are add-ons which will largely reflect the vote from their states. In fact, what we are consistently seeing is that the super delegates far from coming to Hillary's aid have been consistently coming out in support for Obama which is why he has narrowed the gap which a few months ago was over 100 delegates. This original gap in super delegates responded largely to DNC super delegates appointed by the Clintons and perhaps their feeling some sort of debt. Can Hillary win the outstanding non add on super delegates 170 to 70 and win the remaining pledged delegates by 50? Judging on what we are seeing it simply challenges all logic to believe so. Moreover, can she even come close enough to revive the issue of seating Florida and Michigan in a way that is convenient for her? We are seeing even during the depths of Obama's campaign that he is still winning over the unpledged super delegates.

Therefore, considering the proportional representation used to allocate delegates, considering Obama is up about 155 pledged delegates this means Hillary has no chance. I suppose Obama could crater and his super delegates defect but what we are seeing is in my opinion a huge waste of time and energy which only serves the interests of John McCain and a Hillary Clinton candidacy in 2012. Obama has been the defacto nominee for two months now and people need to wake up instead of swallowing the media line. Some may not like it- including understandly those who need to sell newspapers- but it is simply too late to do anything about it! Sure, if we had known back then what we know now about Barack Obama maybe democrats would not have voted for him but we did not know it and thats just the way it is... Hillary picked up between 8-10 delegates in Pennsylvania. Technically she was further behind after Pennsylvania than before it voted given there were 158 less delegates from which to make up the difference. She did gain a little over 200,000 popular votes but the notion that being ahead in the popular vote should she somehow get there means the rules of the game don't apply seems nonsensical. It would be like saying that the team that won a close basketball game did not deserve to win because the crowd cheered loudest for the losing team. No. What matters is what happened on the court during the game played with agreed upon rules. The fact the crowd/popular vote may reflect a wish something different had happened does not change the score or electoral outcome.

Also one last point: while it is true that Barack Obama faces resistance from certain segments of the democratic party it is also likewise correct that there are many people who could never bring themselves to vote for Hillary Clinton. Instead of framing the issue in terms of "Why can't Obama close the deal?" as many media pundits/simpletons do why not raise the question of "Why can't Hillary close the deal?" After all Hillary began the election with every conceivable advantage and yet here we find ourselves today- April 30- and she not only could not close the deal but finds herself behind resorting to far fetched scenarios to even justify a continued presence in the campaign. That the media has elected to go along with this is not surprising as their job......... is to sell newspapers after all!

Or at least thats the way I see it...

No comments:

Blog Archive