Telegraph America have recently listed the top fifty pundits in America. Top pundit number seven (Tim Russert) and top pundit number six (Matt Drudge) have told their audiences that results overnight from Indiana and North Carolina mean that Hillary Clinton's bid for the Democrat nomination is effectively over and Senator Barack Obama will be the candidate to take on John McCain in the November General Election. Watch Tim Russert here.
Hillary Clinton did not have a great night. Barack Obama won North Carolina by a large margin and her victory in Indiana was by just 20,000 votes and many of those votes may have come from Rush Limbaugh's 'Operation Chaos'. Talk radio's Limbaugh encouraged Republicans to vote for the former First Lady so that the seemingly never-ending Democrat race continues. For Andrew Sullivan, a staunch Obama fan, the math(s) are now hugely in his candidate's favo(u)r":
"Clinton gets bragging rights for Indiana. But it's basically a tie. Overall, counting both states, Clinton won 1,273,696 votes; and Obama won 1,528,897. It was a 55 - 45 percent win for Obama in the popular vote. And it's now basically impossible for her to make a popular vote argument, even with Florida and Michigan. After the last month of unremitting Freak Show attacks, that's a remarkable show of strength and resilience. Obama's delegate lead grows. He will have the majority of the popular vote. He has far more money and far more donors. The logic of Clinton's remaining in the race dwindles to the point of vanishing altogether."
If you watch Clinton's victory speech
however, she appears pretty determined to persevere. "So now it is on
to West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon," she says: "I’m going to work my
heart out in West
Virginia and Kentucky this month and I intend to win them in November
in the general election... And I am running
to be the President of all of America - north, south, east and west,
and everywhere in between. That’s why it is so important that we count
the votes of Florida and Michigan. It would be a little strange to
have a nominee chosen by 48 states." Politico
reports that with Florida and Michigan counted, Senator Clinton will be
about one hundred pledged delegates behind Senator Obama and they would
then have to fight over superdelegates' loyalty.
If Mrs Clinton doesn't voluntarily quit now - and she has raised speculation that she might by cancelling media appearances - then The Page's Mark Halperin
wonders if some of her prominent backers will be forced to publicly
urge her to quit. Halperin mentions former General Wes Clark.
Republicans are no longer sure whether they'd rather face Obama or Clinton. Clinton was thought to be the easier opponent but that has changed in recent weeks. She is now more competitive in the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, for example, than Obama. She has almost been roadtesting the campaign that McCain will now run against the Illinois Senator. Republicans will portray Obama as elitist and unable to understand small town, working class America. They'll also highlight his links with Rev'd Wright and other unsavoury characters. Barack Obama must remain favourite to be America's next President - and he'll enjoy a surge in the polls when his nomination is finally confirmed - but the Republicans can now see a route to victory.
