Sunday, May 11, 2008

Don't mean a thing . . .

. . . if you ain't got those swing states:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's top aides [Friday] accused Sen. Barack Obama of ignoring West Virginia, saying Democrats must win the state in the fall and using her 43-point poll lead there as evidence that her longshot bid deserves to run its course.
"What is the basis for the so-called 'presumptive nominee' not competing in a state that would be a key swing state?" Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson asked reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, adding that a Tuesday victory could be a turning point for his boss.
A 15-point win for Mrs. Clinton, "in an atmosphere in which she is being written off and told to leave the campaign, if voters hearing that in West Virginia decided to choose to affirm her candidacy despite that, I think that would say something significant about her ability to compete and win votes in a very tough environment," he said. Since winning North Carolina and coming within two points in Indiana, Mr. Obama has done everything to indicate he views himself as the Democratic presidential nominee -- avoiding engaging with Mrs. Clinton, and disregarding his rival's calls for a debate and pivoting toward the general election. . . .
Mr. Obama predicted a defeat in West Virginia on Tuesday, telling reporters Mrs. Clinton was likely to beat him by "significant margins," in both West Virginia and in Kentucky on May 20. In Kentucky she is favored in polls by 34 points.
Obama's dissing of Kentucky and West Virginia, on top of his losses in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana -- to say nothing of the DNC's stiff-arming of Michigan and Florida voters -- should be very troubling to Democrats. Do a little Electoral College math, and it becomes clear that Obama's painting Democrats into a corner.

Come November, if this all blows up in Democrats' faces, no one can say the warning signs weren't clear.

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