Political State Report: State News Straight Up

This may be what they call, closing the deal.

With final results still to come in, the margins of victory are closing in both races. But the clear victor of the night, matching and slightly exceeding expectations, is Barack Obama.

Hillary Clinton after a good run of wins, met the voting base of North Carolina and faced a core block of people don’t like her in Indiana. As of writing, Obama is up by 16 and Clinton is up by 4 (with 75% of the vote counted)

Tonight will be painful for Clinton supporters around the Web, though already seen is the pattern that, yes, this is how the race should go - through people voting. There’s nothing unfair about results (Nov. 2000 the largest and most obvious exception).

Obama supporters will start using Clinton campaign arguments without missing a beat - that the small remaining states don’t matter.

Clinton could easily win all the remaining races but tonight the narrative was written for the rest of the campaign. The biggest decision for the Clinton campaign now is how best to withdraw from the race, with grace and dignity. If Obama supporters will let her.

The left side of the blogosphere will be packed with recriminations from here on, and likely through Election Day in November. John McCain has been polling way ahead of Obama but that is, while not meaningless, fairly insignificant because the question when only two candidates are in the race is an entirely different question.

I’ll have more about swallowing pride and being given reasons for doing so in an upcoming post here. This race has fundamentally changed the future of the Democratic Party and who it caters to. It’s not all positive.

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (1)

With 19% counted in Indiana, Clinton up 14% but it isn’t called. CNN calls North Carolina solely based on exit polls. That seems foolish, as if maybe they couldn’t wait until a percentage of actual votes came in.

It’s highly possible, by the way, that with North Carolina’s higher delegate count, Barack Obama will come out ahead in that count tonight.

UPDATE: I know it doesn’t mean anything but after having called North Carolina for Obama with no results, the first results show CLINTON with 60% of the vote, with about 1,400 votes to Obama’s 40%.

UPDATE 2 Now early results how Obama with 69% in North Carolina. CNN also joked (joked right?) that Roland Martin had not come out in support of either candidate.

Forty percent counted in indiana and it’s not called for Clinton yet with 12% lead. Perhaps understandable, but I remember last election the races were too close to call for a loooong time and the percentages stayed the same. … Each state is different.

UPDATE 3 CBS NEWS is the first to call Indiana for Obama. CNN’s John King says we want to count the votes as reason for not calling it. By the way, 49 % of vote in for Indiana, 11% of vote in for North Carolina. …. Clinton now ahead by a smaller 10% in Indiana.

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (0)

As Hillary Clinton continues to watch superdelegates make another choice, she faces another election day in Indiana and North CArolina.

I think conventional wisdom, which of course has tracked with the polls, will hold true. Clinton will win Indiana by about the same amount she loses North CArolina. And if she wins North Carolina - very unlikely - then the rules of the “game” have changed big time, and it’ll be Obama on the ropes, still being unable to deliver that knock out punch to his fellow Democrat.

I am certain that the delegates are, of their own volition - in most cases (ahem, Joe Andrew) - slowly opting for Obama because, well, I’m not sure but “inspired” seems to be a key word. That’s fine. It’s part of the process.

Among the most partisan of Democratic voters - the net-punditry - Clinton has become more unpopular for a variety of reasons, many manufactured or left over from the right-wing crazy narrative of the 90s. She’s equally a pariah among the national media punditry, of course, thus demonstrating little difference among pundits no matter the medium.

But she has also become unpopular among Democratic leaders by making these superdelegates make a tough decision. And this is partly, of course, because voters keep on voting for her in heavy amounts thus making her decisions easy - to stay in until the voters clearly reject her candidacy.

I clicked on the following to get a broad feel for what people are thinking about and the title - Time For Obama To Deliver Body Slama - seemed to illustrate my point:

Look, up in the sky. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s SuperObama. Now has come the time to transform those words of hope into a plan of action. So the saying goes, “you can’t bring a knife to a gun fight anymore than you can invoke the Marquess of Queensberry rules to a street brawl.” When your opponent, be it man, woman or desperate, shrill politician decides to discard the rules of engagement, you have no alternative but to follow suit.

Trouble is, the “Time for Obama…” was March 10.

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (1)

Thoughts on thoughts and news from around the Web.
ABC NEWS should have absolutely found someone else other than former Bill Clinton press secretary George Stephanopoulos to moderate and ask questions of Hillary Clinton on Sunday. Barack Obama and John McCain were also invited, and though it’s not directly accurate to say they refused, they’re not […]

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (4)

Joe Andrew, a former DNC executive director, and five year chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party decided to chose today to announce that his former support for Hillary Clinton, announced as late Nov. 2007, has waned in favor of a need to end the race and in favor of being inspired.

Math is truth and the truth is that the switch helps Obama make a net gain of two over Clinotn in the Superdelegate count. Equal truth is that neither can make it to the 2025 current count needed to become the nominee. The voters will indeed make their statements, and if Obama wins both Indiana and NOrth Carolina, the race will undoubtedly end. But that’s been said a few times before and Clinton hangs on, by the math and continued support, to lay claim to the nomination. (My thoughts in the comments).

“May 1, 2008

Dear Friends:

I have been inspired.

Today I am announcing my support for Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States of America. I am changing my support from Senator Clinton to Senator Obama, and calling for my fellow Democrats across my home State of Indiana, and my fellow super delegates across the nation, to heal the rift in our Party and unite behind Barack Obama.

The hardest decisions in life are not between good and bad or right and wrong, but between two goods or two rights. That is the decision Democrats face today. We have an embarrassment of riches, but as much as we may love our candidates and revel in the political process that has brought Presidential politics to places that have not seen it in a generation, we cannot let our family affair hurt America by helping John McCain.

Here is my message, explained in this lengthy letter that I hope is perceived as a thoughtful analysis of how to save America from four more years of the misguided polices of the past:

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (3)

John McCain has an interesting choice to make as to who should be his vice presidential running mate. In the most basic of terms the considerations are wide. It’s not even clear the so-called “Maverick” would pick a Republican, though it would be a pretty craven Democrat who would accept his request. What’s that, Joe Lieberman?

A woman? Someone in a wheelchair? A general?

How about Colin Powell? Woah, that one is worth a long, considering pause isn’t it?

Regionally does it matter? Likely not another southwest presence but what about Arnold Schwarzenegger to help drag California to his side? I think it is technically constitutionally legal for a naturalized American to be vice president. National media would shine the biggest spotlight on this campaign.

Laura Ingraham? McCain likes the blondes.

Would he want to strengthen his hawkish (to put it mildly) positions or push someone who would balance where he is perceived as weak.

Does he accept that he is not conservative enough and that being more conservative would actually help with the general electorate?

Would he bring Jonah Goldberg aboard so the right-leaning blogosphere would finally come aboard?

Michael Bloomberg is a serious consideration. What say you?

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (2)

With his own confetti strewn picture atop his Web site, Independent candidate Ralph Nader wants people to not only listen to his views but to vote for him and send him money to become the 44th President of America.

Currently there sure do seem to be a lot of potential defectors from the Democratic Party if their preferred candidate doesn’t get the nomination. From the right, it’s hard to think Nader’s anti-corporate stance - not a bad thing - will draw many Republican defectors unhappy with John McCain. After all, they don’t like him because of McCain-Feingold’s attempted stripping of money power from corporations. McCain isn’t right enough.

Nader lays down 12 major issues he says are “off the table” of the other candidates. They are:

• Adopt single payer national health insurance

• Cut the huge, bloated, wasteful military budget

• No to nuclear power, solar energy first

• Aggressive crackdown on corporate crime and corporate welfare

• Open up the Presidential debates

• Adopt a carbon pollution tax

• Reverse U.S. policy in the Middle East

• Impeach Bush/Cheney

• Repeal the Taft-Hartley anti-union law

• Adopt a Wall Street securities speculation tax

• Put an end to ballot access obstructionism

• Work to end corporate personhood

Here Nader makes the pitch why he’s a better choice than McCain or Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton:

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (3)

After a sweep of the states tonight, In what was a fairly substantial - and conservative speech - John McCain accepts the Republican nomination for the 2008 presidential race. This is a big deal for McCain who has been trying for so long.

Because he wrapped up the campaign, in all but math weeks ago, this speech has been prepared for a while.

In Austin, Texas, speech below:

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (0)