State of the Race - 2008

In this post I'm going to give a quick summary of where I think all potential candidates are in the race.

John McCain - I believe John McCain is right where he needs to be.  He is the hardest opponent the Democrats could've been handed this year.  He has the title of Republican Candidate, which is enough to help out with the branches of the conservative base that don't listen to Rush Limbaugh or pay too much attention to mainstream media (MSM).  At the same time, however, he can pull the more-informed Independent voters based on his long record in the Senate.  While the non-MSM watching Republican voters will believe McCain is conservative based on him being a Republican, the informed Independent voters will look at his record and his more moderate stances on campaign finance reform, torture, and earmark spending and like what they see.  It doesn't hurt his cause that right now he is traveling around, looking almost presidential, while his opponents on the other side of the aisle are fighting amongst themselves.  We'll see if his luck holds up.

Barack Obama - Barack Obama is in trouble.  After a barrage of attacks that didn't seem to stick that well, there is now the explosive story of Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright.  This is an attack that wasn't launched by his political opponents, but instead, by the YouTube generation.  This attack shows that, for all the Americans how there who are willing to look beyond race and politics of old, there are still so many who draw conclusions based on stories like this.  And, trust me, there are going to be a lot of these voters.  With the story breaking this evening about contracted workers for the State Department illegally viewing Mr. Obama's passport records, as well as the information that Gov. Bill Richardson will be endorsing Barack later today, we'll surely see how much traction this Rev. Wright story gets.  Does anyone else notice how the MSM has in effect silenced Hillary Clinton throughout all of this?  All this attention, albeit mostly negative for the past week, on Barack Obama, has somewhat pushed Hillary Clinton out of the forefront of people's minds.  It seems to have become less about the fight for the Democratic nomination than about Barack Obama's personal fight to prove himself in a rough political world.  Will this attention, in the end, help or hurt Barack Obama in his attempt to become the Democratic Nominee?  The attention has not all been negative of course, with his remarkable speech on Tuesday as well as the impending endorsement of Bill Richardson.  We'll see what luster Barack Obama has left, if any, next week.

Hillary Clinton - Where has Hillary been?  While Barack Obama is in the fight for his politcal life on the personal front, Hillary Clinton is in the fighting to stay afloat and provide herself a pathway to the nomination.  This has been the week of Hillary Clinton trying desperately to get the Michigan and Florida delegates counted.  She has slammed Barack Obama for not doing enough to ensure the Michigan and Florida votes are counted.  It is going to be very hard for her to get this attack across right now, with all the Rev. Wright stuff floating around.  As well as the State Department story.  Apparently, Hillary Clinton has decided to fight to win a state that Barack Obama was picked to win with flying colors.  My state, North Carolina.  Bill Clinton is going to be here in Charlotte as well as near Raleigh, NC tomorrow to promote his wife's candidacy.  As the ˆNew York Timesˆ stated in their article, Hillary needs three things to happen to win this nomination.  She needs to get the most popular votes (which she desperately needs Michigan and Florida to do), she needs to win Pennsylvania handily, and she needs for something major to happen to make Barack Obama falter.  This Rev. Wright thing could be fulfill the third step, but as of right now it doesn't appear to be.  It doesn't seem to be affecting the superdelegates, as even afterwards, Bill Richardson is going to endorse Barack. Hillary has a tough, tough fight ahead of her, but if her past is any indication she is just the type of candidate that can withstand the odds that are in front of her.