Johnny B. Goode vs George Brett

As McCain ended his nomination acceptance speech to Chuck Berry, my mind was still on Mike Huckabee’s speech thirty minutes earlier. When comparing the two, not only last night, but all throughout the election process in my mind, Huckabee – who quotes the Bible a bit too much for my liking – is no doubt, far and away, a much more gracious, dignified, respectable and honorable candidate then John McCain has ever been. In one short speech last night, saying goodbye to his supporters, Huckabee sounded more sincere in his passions and desire for the White House then John McCain has in all of his speeches combined.

I think the fact that Huckabee was still able to garner a sizable percentage of the vote speaks volumes to how fractured the Republican Party is, McCain not being a “uniter” in that sense. His team will chalk it up to the fact that they had it wrapped up and many McCain supporters stayed home, not voicing their opinion on a topic that was already settled. On the contrary - the outcome has essentially been decided for weeks – but thousands of people felt the desire to proclaim their allegiance to a different candidate, a candidate that simply was not going to win. They wanted the nation to know that they did not stand behind John McCain. If that doesn’t scream dis-unity, I don’t know what does.

The truth behind Texas and Ohio - the battle still looms

Meanwhile, the Democrats are still locked in a heated battle for delegates. Both candidates know (what most media outlets don’t want to advertise too loudly) that, even if one of the candidates were to win every remaining state by considerable margins (60%-40% range), that neither would be able to capture the number of regular delegates needed to secure the nomination without the much-maligned superdelegates coming into play.

And so the battle begins to get in with the rank and file of the political super-strata. Neither candidate will head to the convention with enough delegates leaving the party facing a major catastrophe, which would aid McCain in the eyes of the voters. To avoid catastrophe, they'll support whoever leads the delegate count coming in. Tim pointed out (nothing like some good old fashion cooperation) that Tim Russert maintains that the last three times the Democrats had a knock-down-drag-out convention; they lost in the general election. It's tough to survive that fight financially, emotionally, and in the court of public opinion.

As I’ve presumed before, the Democratic Party is simply not going to propel one candidate ahead of the other with superdelegates come convention time. So the question isn’t whether Clinton can win Ohio and Texas and carry some momentum going forward. The question is can Clinton win handedly in those states and considerably close the delegate gap between she and Obama in the hope that she can accomplish the same in PA and can squeak ahead as the Puerto Rican polls close. And for those who don’t know, not only does Puerto Rico get a primary, but they have the last one, voting on June 7th, and with a whopping 63 delegates, 55 of which are regular delegates. Out of the remaining 12 democratic primaries, that’s good for third most! So when looking into the Texas and Ohio results take note of the margin of victory and not simply the declared winner because the margin will go a long way to really determining whether the Clinton campaign has any steam left. Not to mention the proportion of delegates that comes with it.

Back against the wall

What will be interesting to note will be how Clinton did among voters who decided within the past 3 days. Her campaign noticeably increased their ‘negative’ campaign attacks on Obama (something that, until this point, both candidates had avoided doing) and in so doing; she either recruited or alienated undecided voters. Initial reports are mixed as to their effectiveness; but either way, if those attacks continue, she’ll be providing ammunition to Republicans in a possible head to head battle against Obama. Both Clinton and Obama have preached up to this point that they have been running clean and respectable races. Both candidates agree that either one of them would be a considerably better option then McCain. Yet Clinton has taken the first step in changing the playing field in a manner that may end up helping the other team.

In changing the playing field, Clinton has begun to create a potential riff among Democratic voters – which is the last thing the Democrats need at this point, especially at a time when the Republican Party is essentially forced to coalesce behind their candidate. So on a day when we may not have learned much new information, keep your eye on how Clinton's tactics affect the future outcomes for the Democrats. Not to mention the looming Republicans. Yesterday evenings primaries may end up being as important as was advertised, but it just might be for a completely different reason.