BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

Oregon came through for the almost certain Democratic nominee.  After the early returns showing yet another trouncing in Kentucky, Oregon shored up the vote and gave Obama a victory, splitting the Kentucky and Oregon primaries.

More importantly, the tally gave Obama the majority of pledged delegates.  With three primaries left, it seems that Obama’s focus has turned to Michigan and Florida, two states in which he did not actively campaign… and two states that voted for Hillary Clinton. 

Obama scored an easy victory in Oregon after being trounced by Clinton in Kentucky. The results left him fewer than 100 delegates short of the 2,026 currently required to win the party’s nomination in one of the closest contests that Democrats have staged in a generation.

The senator from Illinois stopped short of claiming the nomination, a milestone he may not be able to reach until the end of the primaries on June 3. But he staged a victory rally in Iowa, the site of his first big win of the year, to highlight his near-lock on the nomination and to continue to shift his focus to a general-election campaign against Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Aware that Barack Obama is going to try to score a few points in Michigan and Florida, and perhaps fearful that she may lose what has been considered bagged for the convention in Denver, Senator Clinton has decided to stabilize her standings in the two states that have voted but where nothing is settled.

With a bit of momentum from her landslide Kentucky victory and less lopsided Oregon loss, Hillary Clinton is turning her attention to two states that have already voted, Florida and Michigan, over two states and a territory that have yet to, South Dakota, Montana and Puerto Rico.

It’s part of a last-gasp strategy aimed at prolonging her campaign by convincing the party to alter the nomination math. By seating the penalized Florida and Michigan delegations, she would not only gain a significant number of delegates but also bolster her popular vote argument with the superdelegates.

The new Florida and Michigan offensive will kick off in earnest today with three campaign events in South Florida – though she’ll have to share the state with Obama, who begins a three-day campaign swing there – and will likely also include campaigning in Michigan. That’s in addition to an already circulating online petition and escalating campaign rhetoric casting Clinton as best-positioned to carry the two important big states in the fall against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain – partly because of her fight against disenfranchising Democrats there.

Super Tuesday… way back in February… was expected to determine something.  Each of the primaries that has followed came with great anticipation and ended with less than a whimper.  The fight goes on, although the math shows that short of a major gaffe or catastrophe Barack Obama will be the party’s nominee.

We have to give Hillary one thing.  She is creating a name for herself.  No one can call her anything but determined.  Yet, with June 6th approaching fast and November closer than any of us may think, the Democrats have to do something to end the in-fighting and unite to take on John McCain in the fall. 

We’ve come this far and the party is surviving and thriving, so let’s just hope that the next few weeks don’t do anything to upset the party momentum.