It’s heartening to see a major publication tackle the silly gas holiday plan. It’s equally heartening to see the major newspaper in a key remaining primary state attack the plan as well.
And as simply as can be explained: Clinton needs a straight sweep of the remaining primary contests. She still will be behind Obama in delegates, but with a straight sdweep, she has a stronger case to make to superdelegates. And even though Obama will get most of the current superdelegates, the DNC is stacked with Clinton supporters and there’s more than 125 superdelegates yet to be chosen. So when it gets down to the last 200 unpledged delegates, that’s where the Clinton reserve will be.
The polls clearly demonstrate that Obama’s taken a hit from all the shameless hoopla about his pastor. SUSA polls, typically within 3 points of correct, now show a Clinton lead in Indiana, and a once big gap down to 5% behind in North Carolina. It’s a foregone conclusion that she’ll win by huge margins in KY and WV. Most analysts say NC is a lock for Obama. It is…. but only if he stops the bleeding. And the gas tax holiday is designed to keep him bleeding in NC and IN. You’d better believe Clinton’s enjoying the internal polling lately.
A loss in NC will certainly cause some supers to reconsider, even though the pledged delegate count will never favor Clinton. If she pulls off that upset, the path is almost clear. Oregon is still favoring Obama and some still think Puerto Rico might be close.
I live in Oregon. I’ve been seeing a ton of Bill lately canvassing this state. And little from Obama, though I know that’ll change after Tuesday. Demographically, one would normally define Oregon as slightly favoring Clinton. But there’s still a lot of racism out there in them hills. In fact, north of the Mason Dixon line, the two northern states that had the most active KKKs for many decades were Oregon and Indiana. That’s not the case now, but there’s plenty of ‘em lingering about still.
The Oregonian was instrumental in the decline of the KKK here and it has done well in combating the Aryan Brotherhood influence that was spilling over from Idaho and some other conservative regions of Oregon and Washington. Yet even today, in liberal Eugene, a number of black professionals have moved away in recent years, complaining about hostile attitudes towards their race.
So don’t discount the possibility of a Clinton sweep. That gas tax holiday, and other tricks that may still be up Team Clinton’s sleeve, may seem silly today, but they could create havoc in the primaries, the party and ultimately, the country.
If Obama’s got game, he better show more than “the gas tax holiday won’t work.”
Fine. Show us what will. Or are you gonna let the Atlanta Hawks overcome the favorite?