With 11 straight victories it is difficult to deny growing momentum in the Barack Obama camp. If either Texas or Ohio, once solidly in the Hillary Clinton corner fall to Obama then it would seem that Obama would be the prohibitive favorite for the Democratic nomination. If this does happen it will bring up an interesting question for the party leadership. Do they pressure Hillary Clinton to withdraw?
The justification will be pretty simple. McCain is already the lock nominee for the Republicans. While he is busy running around mending fences in his party, appealing to independents and building a war chest for the general election, Clinton and Obama could be locked in a struggle to the death on the Democratic side. This type of an end to the primaries would likely significantly weaken Obama against McCain. With Obama spending money against Clinton and with Clinton banging away with such lines as "shame on you Barack" how much will he have left for November in terms of money and how much internal party bitterness may be created?
So does she withdraw for the benefit of the party or does she open another front and challenge the party decision not to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates? If that ends up being her final strategy then you know for sure it is all about Hillary and to Hell with the party.
In addition to unsightly inter party warfare the Democrats face another inconvenient development with today's announcement by Ralph Nader that he will be running in another third party effort. It is widely felt among the pundits that Nader cost Al Gore the election in 2000. Although the impact of a Nader candidacy seems diminished it is still another hurdle that the Democrats do not need on the way to the White House. Will Nader continue to be a spoiler for the Democratic hopes in the same way that Perot was for the Republican chances against Bill Clinton?
McCain seems to be faring much better on his side. The New York Times piece seems to have been a boon to him. According to the Times ombudsman, the paper had never received as much negative mail on a story. This enabled McCain to have the conservative wing of the party, which to this point had loathed the idea of a McCain nomination, now is circling the wagons around him in defense against the smear piece.
Another significant benefit to McCain is on the physical side. McCain's age is no secret, his early win now enables him to ease up quite a bit, gets some rest, fill his coffers and get plenty of organizational time to prepare for the Democrat.
A quick Obama knock out of Hillary or a classy surrender by her is the best medicine for the Democrats.
