Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The way ahead for Senator Clinton

Adam Nagourney at the NYT suggests the only way possible for Senator Clinton to clinch the Democratic nomination - pound Senator Obama in Pennsylvania and Indiana, get a bunch of wins down the stretch, and hope for a huge disaster to befall Senator Obama so that he nosedives in general election polls against Senator McCain. All this, to give superdelegates pause before going with the winner of the delegate race and popular vote.

David Brooks says the chances of that happening are just 5% now. And for the sake of that 5%, Senator Clinton is going to continue with a campaign that will see constant sniping by campaign aides and surrogates on both sides, innuendo, race- and gender-baiting. The end as Brooks sees it, is that either Senator Clinton steps aside (probably after the May 6 primary in North Carolina) in a human display of self-sacrifice that goes against her entire political career, or that she goes down, "taking down as many allies as necessary."

I hope Senator Clinton reads the Brooks piece, though it seems (like a certain sitting President) Senator Clinton does not read the news. Given the secrecy over her personal finances, her duplicity over NAFTA, Bosnia - gate, her continued pursuit of a campaign strategy that increasingly resembles the Tonya Harding option, and the no-news reading tidbit - how is Senator Clinton different from Bush-43?

And in that vein, is she so desperate to become President that she will critically cripple Senator Obama and allow Senator McCain to win this November, give us another Bush-43 term, allowing Senator Clinton to run in 2012? After all, Senator Clinton has already implied that Senator McCain is better compared to Senator Obama...

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