Hillary Clinton's in the middle of a major sweep of NC, while Barack
Obama tries to salvage his loss of polling leads in Indiana today as
the "last stand" primaries approach within hours. On CNN coverage,
Obama's obviously not comfortable being "wonkish" on policy...take
away his "change/hope/change/hope" gimmick and he's as flat as a
pancake.
Meanwhile, in NC and yesterday in IN, Clinton is finding broad sup****t
for making the oil companies pay the Federal "gas tax" this summer, a
concept pooh poohed by Obama, who also voted for Dick Cheney's skewed
"energy bill" largely seen as a giveaway to Cheney and Bush's oil
buddies in Texas and Saudi Arabia.
Gallup polling now shows Hillary being the one to take on McCain, with
Obama bouncing around ahead and behind. "Senator Potatohead,"
meanwhile, has been trolling for sorely needed funding with his droll,
ill-received stump speeches. Notoriously unreliable Rasmussen now
shows Hillary taking Indiana by a convincing margin and winning with
an 85.1% certitude. Personally, I don't put a lot of stock in their
predictions, much as I don't in Zogby's, which is a reliable GOP ****ll
operation. However, more credible polling indeed shows Clinton with
the momentum in both states, and street corner stumping in both states
has helped her quite a bit, while Obama's "big deal" rallies are
increasingly poorly attended. While Obama's handlers were a month ago
mocking Clinton for having to bus union members into her rallies,
they're now a "full house," while Obama's staffers are having to
resort to sticking with college campus rallies in smaller venues. The
"infatuation" stage of his campaign is over, and people are asking,
"Where's the beef?" That's his problem...there isn't any.
On McLaughlin this past week, Pat Buchanan predicted Clinton will take
Indiana by a wide margin, while all the other pundits on the panel
agreed she'd take it narrowly. Moderator McLaughlin, however,
differs, saying he thinks Obama can still take Indiana by a sliver,
which might mean yet another 50/50 delegate split...worst case
scenario for Clinton. One of the pundits (Monica Crowley?) went so
far as to predict a Hillary upset in NC, but no one else seemed to be
buying to that. But, if you look at past polling-versus-results
numbers, especially in New Hamp****re, Clinton has a definite ability
to utilize pre-election momentum, parlaying it into big victories. NC
is indeed in play, with Obama sunk into single digits, while more than
half of the credible polls today show Clinton statistically ahead in
IN. This all goes to show you how unreliable ALL polling has become
in this primary race; Obama was supposed to take Guam by 20%; he took
it by only seven votes out of almost 9,000 cast, making Guam a 50/50
split...advantage: Clinton.
It ain't over...not by a long shot.
Buzz in DC: Is Jeremiah Wright really a stealthy Clinton surrogate,
or just another black racist preacher with a huge mouth?
Observations: Campaign liability Michelle Obama resurfaced Sunday on
"Meet The Press" and kept her big mouth uncharacteristically shut. Her
thesis paper has been making the rounds once more...sure poison to
Obama's campaign should the pundits bite on it during the week...IF.
She's been getting a pass on that issue from the media from Day 1.
MSNBC Obama ****ll Keith Olbermann is becoming increasingly annoying in
his wacky comments about Clinton. Back to s****ts for you, Keith...you
can have all the black guys you want over there. Chris Matthews is
now coming around to the conclusion (late) that Obama might lose this
thing, this after last week saying (correctly) that Obama couldn't
"close the deal" in Pennsylvania. "Senator Potatohead" McCain's
recent TV coverage has been uncomplimentary, showing a very tuckered
out old man with precious little to say about anything...other than to
ask for money...please! Clinton campaign honchos have managed
(somehow...thorazine?) to put Bill on ice. He's been noticeably
absent in Indiana, although re****ts have him popping up here and there
in North Carolina. Maybe Hillary yelled at him? Obama surrogate and
Richmond, VA mayor/former VA governor L. Douglas Wilder didn't do
Obama any big favors on "Face The Nation" Sunday, while Clinton
booster and Indiana's favorite son, Evan Bayh, come across
convincingly for Clinton, even though he had to use his cell phone to
replace CBS' failed talk-back circuit.
Predictions: If Clinton ties Obama in NC, it's all over for Obama,
since Clinton will reliably take Kentucky. Once Kentucky is over,
watch for the Florida/Michigan imbroglio to boil over on CNN, Faux
News and in the press...advantage: Clinton...bigtime. MSNBC will just
continue to whine about how Hillary is mistreating Obama. CNN will
again overtake Faux News in the overall ratings this election season.
Both CNN and MSNBC have been gaining viewer****p in Neilsen numbers,
CNN by 41% and MSNBC by even more, while Faux has lost 11%. THAT's
why you see Democrats on Faux now...Rupie and his gofer Roger Ailes
realize that sticking with the far-loony right could be fatal to his
big money tree.
In another challenge to Aussie wacko Rupert Murdoch's throne, Mort
Zuckerman (US News and World Re****t, NY Daily News) will indeed close
the deal for Newsday, the Long Island-heavy tabloid (the paper people
read on the LIRR on their way to work), giving Rupie fits. Rupie
can't hope to close that deal, since the FTC will bar the sale to him
based on his multimedia market saturation in the tri-state area.
Rupie's tabloid New York Post has been skidding in reader****p per the
ABC, while Newsday and Mort's Daily News have been gaining on both the
Post and the NY Times. Stay tuned...Rupie will try to do what he
always does (throw more money at Newday to counter Zuckerman) but will
still lose, which will infuriate him. Murdoch has a history lately of
making stupid business decisions once he gets riled, the LA Dodgers
screw up being a good case on point. Our long national nightmare of
having some righttard Aussie control our free media is almost over.
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