Posted by
Brett K on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 9:40:14 PM
As the returns come in from Kentucky, Clinton has yet another massive victory. Currently with 93% of precincts reporting, Clinton has trounced Obama 66% to 30%. While the Oregon returns are still 2 hours away, we can expect a double-digit Obama victory. But "exit" polls (phone polls conducted among Democrats who claim to have mailed in their mail-in ballots) show such a victory being in the vicinity of 14%, not even half of Clinton's 36-point victory here or her 41-point victory in West Virginia.
So, fallout.
Despite Clinton's incredible performance over the past 6 weeks, Obama will still most likely garner the majority of pledged delegates of the party tonight. Nearly 300 superdelegates have yet to speak, but they say they will follow the pledged delegate allocation. In all honesty, Barack Obama will still most likely receive the nomination. I believe this is a huge mistake for the Democratic Party to make. And it is a perfect opportunity to prevent Obama from becoming another McGovern, which is why the superdelegate system was created in the first place: nominate Hillary Clinton.
I am not going to list the reasons why, because I have repeatedly on this blog. Tonight continues to prove my point. The exit polls in Kentucky are extremely disturbing for Obama.
One poll in particular caught my eye. Of Hillary Clinton supporters, only 50% would vote for Obama in the general. 32% would vote for McCain instead. 15% would stay home.
What it boils down to is that Obama is a left-winger. Clinton and McCain are moderates. When Reagan and Bush 43 ran, they were able to win the middle by appealing personably to the common man. Their incompetent opponents helped as well. Neither of them sacrificed conservatism to get elected. McCain has. He is a total and complete moderate, barely right-of-center on the political spectrum. Clinton, too, is moderate. She is barely left-of-center. The two of them would have one hell of a battle for the presidency. Obama, however, is a left-winger. He is very liberal, voting on the left of issues 97% of the time in the Senate. Clinton and McCain have done a great job of exposing him as the liberal he is. As I've explained before, this does not appeal to the majority of Americans, which is why he just can't get rid of Clinton. She is a bastion of moderation in a sea of anti-Americanism (embodied by Obama and his media followers).
There is a slim chance that Clinton will steal the nomination. If she can use the recent contests, her votes in Michigan and Florida, and the fact that Obama has lost 300,000 votes to her since Wisconsin and all but one state since March 1st, to convince the superdelegates that she is the more electable, then who knows. But this is unlikely. And a McCain landslide is in store for November.