The Economist explains how Obama won the Democratic nomination with non-flashy methodology:
But as this AP story reports, and as many previous versions have also said, it's because his campaign fought to win on the one metric that counted: delegates. Not states, not swing states, not states that begin with M, not the super-duper important state of the week, not votes, not votes minus caucuses, not media victories, not haymakers landed. One word: delegates. He racked them up, wherever he could. A telling detail: he won as many net delegates over Mrs Clinton in Kansas as she did over him in New Jersey. His team mastered the minutiae and won on the score that matters.Borrrring! Maybe this is why, even with all the baggage of the GOP, John McCain is (theoretically!) ahead in the latest electoral projection. Or maybe it means Obama is going to bring the same discipline to the general election and make history. Either way.
But this is also why his victory has come to seem almost a little hollow. Every time the media fixated on the huge contest of the week or month, he didn't win. He just won every other one-those states nobody paid attention to on Super Tuesday, and that long unbroken run in February. Sure, nobody covered the Mississippi primary. But it netted him quite a lot of delegates. Technically precise, and yet somehow emotionally unsatisfying, as if Rocky were actually a great point fighter, good footwork, flawless jab, no weaknesses, taking a hook and a cross here and there but ultimately beating Apollo Creed on all three judges' scorecards, winning 9 rounds of 15.
4 comments:
How appropriate that Obama did it like a Communist Party apparatchik -- by mastering the arcane rules. This is not a good omen for a President Obama. Clearly, he launch a revolution via bureaucratic dictat, one regulation at a time. His Weathermen mentors must be besides themselves with joy these days.
Mmm. Yes. Looking at Obama's 35,000-person crowd in Philadelphia, or his 75,000-person crowd in Portland, or the pair of 30,000-person crowds he pulled on the same day in Maryland, the first phrase that springs to mind when describing Obama's success is "almost a little hollow."
While focusing exclusively on the "one metric" of delegates, Obama also picked up the most votes, and the most money. Those factors have sometimes been helpful in prognosticating electoral success.
But lost to Hillary in every Red State. Doubt he'll beat McCain in any of them. Besides the Electoral College is a bit different than the Democrat primaries. For example, no way Obama could cover the loss of a huge state like New Jersey with a smaller one like Kansas.
Obama will lose to McCain in a Carter-esque landslide.
I can't begin to tell you how giddy it makes me to see conservatives with reborn hope and arrogance. By all means, rely on Obama losing New Jersey. Just think of how dumbfounded the left is going to look the morning of Wednesday, November 5 when they finally catch on to what you already know. Dare to dream. Nurture your optimism. Don't be discouraged!
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