Election 2008: The Final Countdown?

Election 2008

After winning Hawaii and Wisconsin both by sizable margins last night, Barack Obama has now won ten primaries in a row (eleven if you count the Virgin Islands, which apparently, only I do) and seems poised to be the Democratic nominee for President. Ohio and Texas have truly become Hillary’s last stand. She’s not in Mike Huckabee-land where it’s impossible to win and the she’s hoping for is that her opponent will die (she did not “major in miracles”), but now the pressure to win those two states on March 4th is tremendous. Now it doesn’t matter if she wins Vermont or Rhode Island, who also have their primaries on that day, because not only are they nowhere near enough in delegate counts, but also because she has ignored them just as she’s ignored almost every other state since Super Tuesday. Furthermore, even if she loses Ohio and Texas by small margins, that’s it. Even if she actually wins more delegates in those states but loses the popular vote, that’s it.But my prediction (based on my gut, so Stephen Colbert would be proud), is that she will end up winning both Ohio and Texas but my slim margins. Not, oh say, 58% to 41% which is the pummeling she took in Wisconsin where it should have at least been close. But backed into a corner, I think the Clinton camp is going to go nuts, and maybe pull out some Rove-ian politics and just straight-up rumor-monger and scare-tactic and do anything to try and diminish Obama’s momentum before March 4th.

Should be an interesting two weeks in the political arena.