Month: January 2008

Obama’s Second Coming (Or Is It Third?)

Obamaclintonbrendansmialowskigetty

This looks much bigger than expected. Bill seems to have hurt Hillary’s candidacy:

Roughly 6 in 10 South Carolina Democratic primary voters said Bill Clinton’s campaigning was important in how they ultimately decided to vote, and of those voters, 48 percent went for Barack Obama while only 37 percent went for Hillary Clinton. Fourteen percent of those voters voted for John Edwards.

Meanwhile, the exit polls also indicate Obama easily beat Clinton among those voters who decided in the last three days — when news reports heavily covered the former president’s heightened criticisms of Obama. Twenty percent of South Carolina Democrats made their decision in the last three days and 51 percent of them chose Obama, while only 21 percent picked Clinton.

And Oprah came through:

Fifty-three percent of women – including 79 percent of black women – supported Obama. Clinton received the support of 30 percent of women. Obama was strongest among men, especially black men, while Edwards was strongest among white men.

Race mattered – but by no means as much as some feared, with Obama winning a quarter of the white vote, much better than the 10 percent recorded in some late polls. Is that a reverse Bradley effect? And on the question of unifying the country and defeating the Republicans, Obama scored a huge victory:

Fifty-five percent of South Carolina Democrats viewed Obama as the candidate most likely to unite the country, and 47 percent cited him as most likely to beat a Republican in November. Clinton was cited as most likely to unite the country by 26 percent of Democrats, and 36 percent said she was most likely to win.

These inferences are from the exit polls. The final result is still to come. Stay tuned.

(Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty.)

Is Bill Also After McCain?

A reader suggests that the real import of Bill Clinton’s recent remark about how well his wife and John McCain get along is not an attempt to help Hillary. It’s an attempt to damage McCain, the Clintons’ next target, in Florida and throughout the South and West. My reader has a nice phrase to describe the power-couple’s effect on many of us:

They’re like the flu. You just feel miserable.

The Rules Are For Other People

The Clintons push the envelope again – on the Michigan and Florida delegates. Ed Morrissey and Josh Marshall come together. Maybe the Clintons can bring the country together again – in revulsion at their expediency. Jon Chait crosses the anti-Clinton Rubicon for the first time:

Something strange happened the other day. All these different people — friends, co-workers, relatives, people on a liberal e-mail list I read — kept saying the same thing: They’ve suddenly developed a disdain for Bill and Hillary Clinton. Maybe this is just a coincidence, but I think we’ve reached an irrevocable turning point in liberal opinion of the Clintons.

Wakey! Wakey!

Yglesias Award Nominee

"Bill Clinton is not a racist, but he is crafting a message that unleashes the demon of racism into the Democratic primary because it will help him win. He has unleashed this demon: this base appeal to our fears and divisions. It is done and it can not be put back into the bottle.

It will be a part of the 2008 election regardless of who wins. And it has and will hurt Democrats in 2008. Bill Clinton’s released meme is dividing the Party and I do not see a way back to unity," – a Kossite, reflecting growing disgust in Democratic ranks at the tactics of the Clintons.

The Economist On Bill

An editorial worth absorbing:

The Clintons are in the process of doing the impossible: making the 2008 election a referendum on them, rather than on the Republicans. And the Republicans are inching towards nominating their one candidate, Mr McCain, who has broad popular appeal. If what ought to be a stroll in the park in November becomes a real fight, then the Democrats will know who to blame.