Yeah, I caught this last night. And I agree with Keith. I think he's overly dramatic in a few place, but essentially he's right on the money.

And that's what has me confused: what in the world are Bill and Hillary doing? I mean, they are not politically stupid by any means, so what is their "strategery" with all of this?

Last week on 'Hardball,' Pat Buchanan (who, to my shock and awe, I find myself in agreement with on a lot of things of late) broke the general election down as so:

According to Buchanan, Hillary will come in with 48% (that's the assumed Democratic base that she would carry), and she can get up to 51% to win.

Barack is more of a flip of the coin, Buchanan says. He says he can win big, or he can lose big. He can win with 55%, or lose by only getting 45%.

I more or less with agree with that assessment.

The math may change a little though, what with what Bill and Hillary seem to be doing with this race and gender stuff.

If that 48% is including the traditional black vote, and the college kids that Barack has gotten energized and involved. And the "upscale" white vote. If it's including those groups, then that 48% may turn out to be something like 42%.

Because if they try and destroy Obama, which is almost the only way they can win the nomination at this point (in addition to the super-delegate smoke-filled back room deal that it would also take), then they're going to kill off a lot of votes too.

It's one thing to win ugly, which some say the Clintons wrote the book on, but it's another thing altogether to blow up the party in the process.

Of course, that may be the strategy: they realize that they're too far back, and so they're going to make sure Barack can't win either. And then they'll come back in 2012 and run against McCain.

If that is the plan, then it is a suicide pact, to borrow a phrase from Keith's commentary.

scrawled by Isaac Lawrence | March 13, 2008 12:35 PM

I don't think they come back in 2012. I think the party bosses and the media see *exactly* what Bill & Hillary are doing and they're pissing a lot of folks off.

I think, at 60, Hillary knows this is it for her. I think she has a Scorched Earth mentality, that this thing will get much, much uglier if things don't start going her way.

scrawled by priest | March 13, 2008 12:48 PM

Well said. This is why I love Keith's commentaries.

Yeah, Hillary isn't a monster, but she is pathetic and sad.

scrawled by Hysan | March 13, 2008 6:15 PM

Speaking of things going her way, the next "controversy" for Obama may be some things that his Pastor, Jeremiah Wright, said during some of his sermons sometime last year or whenever.

If Bill O'Reilly gets what's he asking, I guess they (the left-wing media) will have to play the game and try and hold Barak Obama responsible. And I guess he'll have to do the denounce and reject routine like he did with Farrakhan's "endorsement."

And so it goes...

scrawled by Isaac Lawrence | March 13, 2008 6:39 PM