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| Why Can't obama Close the Deal? (AP) |
| 2008-04-23 |
| PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Why can't Barack Obama close the deal? Is the MSM juggernaut changing direction? This is what Terry McAuliff was mouthpiecing last night... It's a question Hillary Rodham Clinton and her surrogates raised through the last days of the caustic Pennsylvania primary contest. And unfortunately for Obama — who lost to the former first lady by a 10-point margin Tuesday night — it's a question that bears repeating. The loss, despite a massive cash infusion and robust campaign presence in the state, underscores the persistent problems he's had winning over many of the voters who form the traditional Democratic party base. While the Illinois senator remains overwhelmingly popular among blacks, affluent voters and young people, other groups key to building the Democratic coalition remain elusive. Clinton bested him among white, blue-collar voters by a margin of 69 percent to 30 percent in Pennsylvania, similar to her showing in Ohio last month. She also won older voters, women and whites and improved her margins among white, non-Catholic men. To be sure, Obama has performed well among those groups in a handful of primaries, including Wisconsin and Virginia, both likely general election swing states. Obama surely will emerge with sufficient delegates to maintain his overall lead, and Clinton's win in Pennsylvania will not do much to close the popular vote gap as she tries to eat into his margin. But the sense of momentum that propelled him to crushing margins across 11 contests beginning in February has slowed, raising concerns among many party activists that he will be left bruised and limping by the time the primaries end in June. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #29 wasn't disagreeing... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-04-23 22:28 |
| #28 that is to say, I am of the very people Obama and the elites look down on. And they still don't realize they owe us, their betters, for their freedom. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-04-23 22:26 |
| #27 FrankG, thats my point. I'm proud to come from such stock. Look up those military references. Being a hillbilly and sharecropper's son gave me toughness to do things that I doubt I otherwise would have accomplished. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-04-23 22:24 |
| #26 OldSpook: if you have pride in your ancestry, no matter of slur can really dig |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-04-23 22:05 |
| #25 Deac, that puts me in a world of hurt, insult wise. Im bred of pure south Alabama (Dothan) tin-roof (w/carpet) sharecropper on one side, and West Va Coalminer (fridge on the porch) Hillbilly on the other, and was raiased in the Blue Ridge Mountains with Moonshiners a couple of hollers down the road, and a bass fishing lake less than an hour away. Good folks there. Google "foot cavalry" (of Stonewall Jackson) - my stompin gorunds growing up. Look up "The Bedford Boys" for the kinds of "older men" that guided me and others my age growing up. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-04-23 22:00 |
| #24 Frank G, I was called a Hillbilly oce in Boston. I grew up in South Alabama where it looks like a billiard table. Cracker and Hillbilly seem to be in common use for white males and Southerners. I, too, laughed. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2008-04-23 19:59 |
| #23 Who you calling Cracker? sorry, osmosis thin-skin from watching the Dems. BTW, has there ever been a lamer slur than "cracker"? Someone called me that one day (I still don't know why) and I responded by laughing so hard he left, embarrassed |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-04-23 19:10 |
| #22 Hill and Bama...Chi needs to be hit hard for spawning such cruds. |
| Posted by: Chinegum McGurque5166 2008-04-23 18:51 |
| #21 Gee thanks Barbara, I haven't thought of Cracker Jacks in forty yars or so, now I just gotta go get a box. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2008-04-23 16:24 |
| #20 Best line I saw yesterday was the response of a grizzled white guy in rural PA to an Obama supporter who tried to give him campaign literature: "I don't like the bitch much, but at least she'll wear the flag." In a nutshell. |
| Posted by: RWV 2008-04-23 15:12 |
| #19 Howzabout some CrackerJacks™, Alan? They've got both. :-D |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-04-23 14:51 |
| #18 tw, yes, they have ego in abundance but no shame at all. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2008-04-23 14:49 |
| #17 Saw some lefty on a blog talking the Goreacle saviour talk. Peanuts anyone? (I'm tired of pop-corn) |
| Posted by: AlanC 2008-04-23 14:38 |
| #16 I just don't see the combined ticket happening. Clinton would be the logical president with OB as vice. She won't stand for the alternative as she knows she'll be too old in 8 years. He won't stand for being vice since he thinks she should have quit the race already. No, I can't see this one happening. OB is losing, losing, losing since he has revealed himself (or others have revealed him). He is far worse than an empty suit. He harbors a strong dislike for America, or at least the one we know and love. He is a worse version of Carter. Can you say malaise? I truly believe his ineptitude could cause a nuclear war. |
| Posted by: remoteman 2008-04-23 13:46 |
| #15 Given the size of the two egos involved and the things said in the primary, what odds on an agreement to a joint ticket of the sort y'all are proposing, no matter how logical? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-04-23 12:38 |
| #14 I agree that a Clinton/Obama ticket makes more sense than an Obama/Clinton ticket. Besides, anybody who would choose Hillary as his (or her) running mate has a serious death wish. The only thing standing between Hillary and her lifelong destiny would be their last heartbeat. That's more dangerous than being between a mother bear and her cub. |
| Posted by: Rambler in California 2008-04-23 12:14 |
| #13 Obama feels "entitled" to the nomination at this point. It's a Dem thing. Hillary feels "entitled" to the nomination. She has since the day she cut "the deal" with Bill. God help us all if Obama and Clinton realize they can take the Whitehouse in November by merely setting aside their egos. I don't care who McCain picks as his running mate for November: the Trunks cannot not beat an Obama/Clinton or Clinton/Obama ticket in the fall. Trunks can make it close, but I don't think they can win against that combo. Hope I'm wrong, but don't think I am. (The smarter ticket is Clinton/Obama because that leaves the door to the WH wide open for Obama in 2016). Dems are gonna rule this country for the foreseeable future even if McCain wins in November.We're just gonna have to deal with that. |
| Posted by: MarkZ 2008-04-23 11:50 |
| #12 "the sense of momentum that propelled him" And who exactly developed and promoted that "sense"? The (Leftist) Press. Obama is their invention. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-04-23 10:06 |
| #11 I was reading comments somewhere and 1 dem said no vote for BO cos he was an American first and the dem party came 2nd....... |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2008-04-23 09:50 |
| #10 I swear - can't call pubbies racist anymore.... they had a clear choice to walk their talk........ |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2008-04-23 09:48 |
| #9 Over our dead bodies...BWAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! |
| Posted by: The Big Arugula Lobby 2008-04-23 09:40 |
| #8 It seems that a substantial number of people who dislike Hillary, belief she is dishonest and also feel her campaign has been negative and divisive, voted for her nonetheless. |
| Posted by: mhw 2008-04-23 09:26 |
| #7 I think you are exactly right Sarge. The irony is, bo was sold as being the anti-jesseh and the anti-sharpton, and what he's going to end up being is the shiny new jesseh-sharpton. A bad demagogue that some politicians won't be able to resist sucking up to. So, even if he loses, we're all stuck with him. Ooh Boy! |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2008-04-23 09:14 |
| #6 BHO reminds me of a pretty blind date that has a bad personality. At first you are blinded by the good looks but as the date continues you start to realize what a ugly person they are inside. In BHO case you see there isn't much below the surface and what's there stinks. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2008-04-23 09:03 |
| #5 Media memo to themselves: "G*d D*mn the lipstick on that pig..." |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2008-04-23 08:58 |
| #4 " If I was a Democrat and he was my parties choice I would vote Republican." I think a lot of Democrats are choosing to do exactly that. In fact, I think that a lot of Democrats are choosing Hillary now because she actually represent the devil you know (I NEVER thought I could write something like that about HER). However, " How about the fact that once the Messiah trappings were stripped away, he was really only just a charismatic empty suit?" isn't quite right. I wasn't as bothered by BHO when I thought he was an empty suit. I now think he's something a lot more dangerous than that. As do PA voters, apparently. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2008-04-23 08:08 |
| #3 If I was a Democrat and he was my parties choice I would vote Republican. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2008-04-23 07:55 |
| #2 How about the fact that once the Messiah trappings were stripped away, he was really only just a charismatic empty suit? |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-04-23 07:12 |
| #1 The above from the AP site, the first place I found it, but Google "obama can't close the deal" and you get over 209,000 hits. Maybe Hilly's speechwriters struck gold? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2008-04-23 07:01 |