It's easy to say that Senator Chris Dodd did not get equal time on today's program because he didn't. However, his argument is a lot easier to make. Barack Obama is going to be the nominee for the Democratic Party. It would have been difficult for Mr. Russert to grill him in anyway since he was on air last Tuesday essentially calling the primary race for Obama. In classic (subscribed) fashion, the numbers were presented and and there should be little discrepancy, but unlike every other discipline where the numbers (the math) don't lie, political math spawns dozens of anti-Einsteins.
This brings us to Terry McAuliffe who followed Sen. Dowd. First, it must be stated that one of the goals of this column is to maintain an objective with regard to the show and its guests. Mr. McAuliffe, as chairman of the Clinton campaign, is wound so tightly to an agenda and his own sense of reality that he, and it is now obviously the Clintons as well, have lost the sense of what the Democratic Party stands for. This column is not saying it is this way, but it does seem that the Clintons are solely concerned with grabbing the power of the Presidential Office, all else be damned. The most immediate example comes from Mr. McAuliffe on today's program who kept injecting the vote tallies of Michigan and Florida into the overall scheme when in Michigan Sen. Obama's name was not even of the ballot (for reasons we already know). It's President Bush's fuzzy math and everyone has a different number. Another example came this week from Sen. Clinton in discussing white American voters with USA Today. Her statements can only leave one dumbfounded. With these kinds of statements, there can be no room allowed for the Clintons to wonder why they are seen as divisive. It has been going on throughout the campaign, but these are the latest examples.
This column may have already stated this, but it seems that with every election cycle we learn of a new term or variable that effects the outcome of an election and not usually for the better. Remember chads? Well, this primary it's all about Superdelegates. In 2004, I don't remember discussing superdelegates, or in 2000 for that matter, but here they are capable of souring the popular vote. The Clintons are counting on these superdelegates and President Bill Clinton is calling in every favor. However, this where the endorsement by Gov. Bill Richardson again comes into play. As we've said, it is the only endorsement that matters. Gov. Richardson's (a superdelegate) endorsement of Sen. Obama sends a strong signal that those favors being called in may not be what's best for the Democratic Party and the country. Like Lech Walesa and Solidarity, Richardson could prove to be the fence jumper.
When Mr. Russert asked every individual on the panel who will get the nomination, it was unanimous for Senator Obama. One of this week's guests, Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post, made the observation that there is a willingness by the superdelegates to have Sen. Clinton play on in the campaign, but if he campaign goes nuclear [read: ultra-negative], then the superdelegates will end it in a big way. It is an inevitability that both of these things will happen, exacerbated further by this Tuesday's primary in West Virginia and Kentucky. Another of Mr. Cillizza's observation's was that Sen. Clinton is now seen as a flawed messenger, citing the example of the gas tax - a political band-aid for the out-of-control rise of gasoline. This column agrees with Mr. Cillizza, but would take it a step further in that this column has seen Mrs. Clinton that way all along. And speaking of the gasoline tax, Sen. Obama is correct in his assessment that lifting that tax would cripple the repair of roads and highway Infrastructure, but how about having it apply only to independent truckers - the ones who are ultimately hit the hardest?
What was Clinton fatigue in 2000, became Clinton nostaglia in 2005 and now the cycle has completed itself as we are back to fatigue. The difference now is that fatigue is most felt by Democrats. And as Mr. Russert animatedly pointed out, Sen. Obama is running against The Clintons! As John Harwood pointed out, George W. Bush has been the greatest unifier of the Democratic Party, but we are seeing it ripped apart at the seams. So much so that the notion being thrown about of an Obama/Clinton is as likely as the theory of intelligent design. The universe had been expanding for millions of years before any type of humanoid developed. It's proven through math, of which there is only one kind. Unfortunately for us, every politician has a different equation.
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