Denver: City of Love
And just like that, the long awaited Pennsylvania primary ends not in a bang, but in a whimper. Much like March 4 and then Super Tuesday before it, both sides can crow about last nights results. And like those previous Tuesdays the Clinton camp may feel the need to crow a little louder because their underlying case remains fundamentally weaker. Unlike those previous two Tuesdays, however, this time around the conventional wisdom is that the Clinton bid is all but dead and last nights results will do little to blunt that storyline. Still, she won and so, for two more weeks at least, the show will continue!
It’s time to start thinking about the end of this thing though. Barack Obama looks to have a chance to finally finish off the Clinton campaign two weeks from now in North Carolina and Indiana. Otherwise it’ll likely drag into June, though even in that scenario the adults in charge of the Democratic Party will likely force a conclusion long before the convention. In either case, the outcome should be finalized at least six or seven weeks before the balloons drop in Denver.
During those six or seven weeks Obama and John McCain will be exchanging speeches and sound bites on a near daily basis. Would the Democratic Party be wise to then have a convention that simply emphasizes McCain bashing and Obama fellating? Or, will the convention need to be a big intra-Party hug to bring all the Hillary Clinton supporters enthusiastically back into the fold? It all depends on how long Hillary wants to keep stringing things along.
One way or another all the Blues really want to do is make sure that in the fall it’s all about “McCain vs Obama”, not bitter memories and lingering tiffs over “Clinton vs Obama”. If Hillary is still a major part of the story through June it might take something as shiny and contrived as the convention to finally push her out of the mainstream news. If Hillary’s story ends before June, the “Obama vs McCain” story will already be entrenched and delving too deep back into the primary, even under the auspices of “unity” or “healing”, would be a mistake.
It really doesn’t matter though; Obama all but assured himself the nomination back on March 4th. The real election, the one in November, will be decided in September and October and all this springtime piffle won’t matter in the least, unless Obama loses and fingers need pointing. Of course if that happens there will be other, much bigger, problems at hand.
