2008 Presidential Race

[chromodynamics]

On the Democratic side:
Color me surprised. Hillary won Ohio, Rhode, Island and Texas, while Obama won Vermont. The new delegate picture is still being calculated. The outlook: Hillary’s campaign will spin it as a comeback, that she can win the biggest, most important states; while Obama’s campaign will say that his delegate lead continues, and that Hillary has failed in her last best chance to gain a significant number of the remaining delegates.

Personally, my biggest concern is that Hillary has learned going negative helps her, and the race will be increasingly negative from here on out.  Now it is a long seven week stretch with some smaller contests (Wyoming and Mississippi) until the next big contest in Pennsylvania.

On the Republican side:
McCain won all four contests yesterday, gaining enough delegates to capture the nomination. Huckabee ended his campaign last night, and McCain is expected to meet with Bush today.

Comments

[misscake]

Yeah, I'm kind of surprised myself. I think the pressure is really going to ratchet up for the two of them to combine their ticket and it's going to come down to who'll be on top. The negativity of the last few weeks is going to make a difficult proposition even more unpalatable to them, but I think they're going to have realize that the voters like both of them pretty much equally and they are going to have to work together.

[chromodynamics.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've seen a lot of talk of that as well. Here is the current headline on MSNBC: "Clinton hints at shared ticket with Obama". I think this idea is very, very exciting, as long as they don't tear each other apart before getting there.

[sundancekid.livejournal.com]

So do superdelegates get to vote however they want? I find that kind of problematic; it seems like the ethical thing to do is vote the way your state voted.

[chromodynamics.livejournal.com]

Yes, they can vote whichever way they decide. There is currently an argument going on whether they should vote how the majority of people that they represent vote, or use their own best reasoning.

It is a strange system, but it is meant to make sure that the party has the final say in choosing a candidate. I think that when the system was set up the big concern was two candidates who were close, but one clearly was a better general election candidate than the other.

Of course, this year we have two strong candidates that the people can't even make a final decision on. Still, if Obama ends with the most number of pledged delegates, states, and popular vote, as he has now, I do not see how the party superdelegates can go against him without smashing the party itself.

But who knows? This has been one strange election so far, and today there seems to be more serious talks by Florida and Michigan about redoing their primaries, which could potentially change the delegate math.