Cheesehead primary blogging
We here at The Last Chance Democracy Café will once again tonight be putting our large staff and daunting media resources to the test, sitting in our easy chair, blogging the Wisconsin primary (we’re far too wimpy to stay up for Hawaii). Drop by from time to time for updates on this thread.
Once considered a mere drive by on the road to Ohio and Texas, Wisconsin is starting to look like a big deal on the Democratic side. There’s a sense in the air that Hillary might just pull off an “upset,” which, of course, would start a feeding frenzy about Obama having peaked and the air coming out of his bubble.
My only comment at this point is that if Hillary does well, it won’t be because of the big -- and stupid -- “plagiarism” dustup. It will be a case of pre-wedding jitters. As I’ve said before, Democrats like both of these candidates. Even more importantly, however, we’re desperate to win this time. We don’t want to fu*k it up again. Thus, any time we get close to sealing the deal, as happened before New Hampshire, there’s a tendency to step back and whisper, “but on the other hand . . .”
We’ll see.
Speaking of things on the other hand -- if, on the other hand, Obama beats expectations again and creams Hillary, it’s going to be awfully difficult for her to recover. With the Aloha State thrown in that would make 10 straight big wins for Obama. That’s hard to argue with.
Along those lines, one Obama backer, Kos, seems to be losing no sleep over a possible late Hillary comeback in the state.
Update one (6:11 fly-over states time): Exit polling shows 25 percent of voters independents: 15 percent first time voters. Advantage Obama?
Update two (8:35 fly-over states time): That was quick. McCain and Obama win. The details should be interesting.
Update three (8:55 fly-over state time): The exit polls are looking brutal for Hillary. Obama swamped her among men and almost matched her among women. He leads substantially in all age groups except 60 and older.
Assuming Obama takes Hawaii later, as seems inevitable, it will be 10 straight large Obama wins. It’s getting hard to see how Hillary comes back from that.
For better or worse, the Democrats are very close to having picked their champion.
Update four (10:31 fly-over state time): For a long time we’ve been hearing how naïve Obama is -- how unprepared he is for the rough and tumble of the general election to come. All of which raises an interesting question: if Obama is such a babe in the woods, how is he able to so regularly run circles around what was the most effective political couple of the generation?
February 19th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
STEVE! Turn off that television! Spend the time in the easy chair snuggling. You aren’t going to change anything by watching talking heads, and the results will be in the paper tomorrow.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
How many times do I have to say, use that chair for canoodling? We’ll find out what happened in Wi in the morning. If you have a baseball bat in the house, use to smash that T.V. Your precious significant others need you more than than Wi voters.
From Steve: I guess I’m hopeless: however the significant others haven’t been ignored. Just got the boys to bed a little bit ago, in fact (they’re night owls by nature too); fortunately school doesn’t start until nine. Peace.