Barack Obama owned last night — and he’ll own the rest of the month for the most part until he runs up against the contests in early March in Rhode Island, Texas and Ohio. Despite Obama’s impressive sweep of Nebraska, Washington and Louisiana yesterday, the delegate count remains at near parity between them. It’s hard to see either breaking out and winning the delegate race outright.
Part of me wishes we could skip what are sure to be teeter-totter results of the rest of the primary season and just get to the wrestling that will take place at the convention in August.
Obama’s wins were very impressive and his next ones will be too — but it’s a mistake to think that Obama’s surge has come anywhere near knocking Hillary Clinton out of the ring. She’s got huge support out there in the country still — and in my view the Democratic Party remains deeply divided between them.
One thing I really don’t get is why Hillary Clinton’s team keeps reporting how much they were outspent or out organized by Obama’s campaign. This seems to plant in the minds of many in those respective states that they didn’t matter in the Clinton campaign’s calculus.
This from the Clinton campaign press office last night:
Tonight there are contests in three states that the Obama campaign has long predicted they would win by large margins. According to a spreadsheet that was obtained by Bloomberg News, the Obama campaign predicted big victories in Washington State, Nebraska and Louisiana.
The Obama campaign has dramatically outspent our campaign in these three states, saturating the airwaves with 30 and 60 second ads. The Obama campaign has spent $300,000 more in Louisiana on television ads, $190,000 more in Nebraska and $175,000 more in Washington.
Although the next several states that hold nominating contests this month are more favorable to the Obama campaign, we will continue to compete in them and hope to secure as many delegates as we can before the race turns to Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania.
I’ve already written extensively that I think Mike Huckabee will be McCain’s GOP VP running mate. His scores last night in Kansas and Louisiana only reinforce my prediction. I think McCain will pull it out in Washington but only by a toe nail.
More later.
— Steve Clemons
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