McCain vs. ?
Mike Huckabee put up a good effort, Mitt Romney put up plenty of dough, but John McCain looks pretty much unstoppable at this point. Amusing, as to many conservative Republicans he's the anti-Christ, but scary at the same time when considering how inadequate he would be as President. Obama did better than I'd expected, not as well as I'd dared hope, but has evened out Hillary's advantages moving forward. He took the all-important primary in Missouri, by a hair, giving him better bragging rights than California. (In the general election Missouri has always voted for the winner since 1900, except once, in 1956, when it went for Adlai Stevenson over the incumbent Dwight Eisenhower.)
Since Hillary had based her whole strategy on a Super Tuesday blowout, now it's back to the trenches it seems like Obama has the momentum. And the rest of February looks very good for him (Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington, U.S. Virgin Islands, Maine, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Hawaii, and Wisconsin). March 4, with Ohio and Texas, will be hard fought. Looking at the numbers it wouldn't be so surprising to see this process extend right up to the convention without any clear result. If the superdelegates then swing the thing for Hillary, look out!
The much touted youth vote again failed to appear — you'd think more of them would've realized by now that they're about to be hosed with prejudice by the system. And the stats for Hillary have become reasonably obvious: white men do not like her, to put it mildly. The fact is, she can't win a general election without white male voters. It pains me, frankly, to see older white women turn out in droves in the Democratic primaries to vote for her. It's not a rational thing.
I'm still not clear, regarding California, how much of Hillary's vote came from mail-in ballots cast before South Carolina and before the Kennedys' endorsement of Obama. It's almost certainly the case that among those who actually went to the polls the race was much, much closer than the final results. Also, all the commentators keep talking about the Hispanic vote in California. As well they should. But what about the Asian vote in California? I'd have been quite interested to know something about it but heard nothing at all.
When Hillary appeared on Letterman this week he slyly/stupidly suggested that Clinton and Obama should share the ticket. The Fly: political edition. It's not something I've seen much talked about elsewhere; hopefully, it won't be.
Posted by George Kenney on February 6, 2008 6:26 AM 
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Comments
Watching Jay Leno interview people who don't even know the names of candidates, I'm convinced that American politics is mostly an identity thing. People look at a picture of a candidate and vote for the one who looks like them. Antiwar women like Hillary, white men who may not be enthusiastic about Iraq still like McCain, etc. Very little understanding of the issues. It's a dismal situation.
A horrible moral choice for me is McCain vs. Hillary. I think I may go with Alex Cockburn's idea that allowing a Republican to win (by not voting for Hillary) makes sense, since he will drive the empire into the ditch, whereas with Dems it will be more protracted. Still, I don't want Armageddon on my conscience. I think McCain is nuts.
As for Asians, I've noticed (based on highly anecdotal evidence) that they seem to favor Hillary. There may be an anti-black prejudice, as with Latinos, but also the economy was good under Bill Clinton (at least superficially) and he boosted the number of green cards. This pro-Hillary fervor pains me, as I like Asian culture and consider them smart.
The Latino prejudice against blacks is also worrisome. This kind of division among natural 'liberal' groups will keep the white fat cats in power for another century. Again, the primary problem is a dismal lack of knowledge. The media is worthless, and most people are too busy to peruse political websites as we do.
Posted by: benjamin777
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February 6, 2008 9:46 AM
The candidates were actually chose two years ago — McCain and Hillary. The rest is just pageantry. The superdelegates will guarantee that Obama does not get the nomination, no matter what the voter says.
McCain may turn out to surprise everyone, if elected. Only he could rein in the military and outlaw torture. Hillary is too weak and concerned with looking so, to do anything about either. McCain is closer to Ron Paul then Hillary or Obama could ever be. Only Nixon could open the doors to China, and only Reagan could start to reduce nuclear arsenals.
Posted by: Gregorio | February 8, 2008 12:38 AM