about Hillary's Florida "win". (FYI, it's the #1 viewed article on the WaPo website today).

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOT MUCH

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con tent/article/2008/01/29/AR2008012902998. htmla?nav=hcmodule

"Cheering supporters?  Check.  Election returns on the projection screen?  Check.  Andrea Mitchell and Candy Crowley doing stand-ups?  Check and check.  In fact, the only piece missing from Hillary Clinton's Florida victory party here Tuesday night was a victory..."

Hilarious!!!!

"If Ted and Caroline Kennedy's endorsement means anything, its first test comes tomorrow in Florida."(Craig Crawford)

Yay Hillary!!!

Her speech came on at about 6:45 in the west and her interviews were all between 7 and 7:30 in the west.  She got a lot of free coverage.

Furthermore the numbers you lay out may be ignored by many in the media, but a lot of smart voters are going to be looking.  They are going to see more evidence that Obama can't win important demographics unless he has 9 months to campaign and 15 million to spend to win them over in a state like Iowa.

Obama must be dispatched quickly.  McCain is already the GOP nominee.

Aside from the Clinton-hating MSM, ancient losers like Ted Kennedy, very poor campaigners and losers like John Kerry, Bill Bradley, and lost-in-the-shuffle senators and governors--most losers or just bare winners themselves--promulgating Obama, the clear bedrock Democrats have been heard time and again--we won't abandon our very successful WINNING Clintons!

Another astonishing fact, lost in the fawning of the MSM for this three year, not-ready-for-primetime candidate, why, if he is the "next JFK," does Obama need so many people from Oprah to Teddy to Caroline to the MSM to serve as his surrogates?

Why does Obama require the entire parade of Obama maniacs constantly telling us how to vote?  Shouldn't Obama himself, after more than fourteen months of solid national campaigning, and scores of televised debates, have been able to convince the rest of us how "special" he is?

Truth be told, we bedrock Democrats--not all those "indies" and "leaners" who early on descended upon Iowa--do not like what we see.

We did love the peace and prosperity of the Clinton years--and still love the Clinton know-how.

The Clintons fully grasp how to win national elections.  John McCain would dispath the increasingly imploding Barack before the first general election vote were ever cast.

The MSM understands the truth of the entire 2008 campaign: it was not about McCain or Obama, but all about stopping the Clintons.

Not McCain, the dinosaur who is an extension of George Walker Bush, but rather only the terrible candidate Obama now stands in the way of another successful Clinton term.

Florida Democrats know that all too well--and they went to the polls in droves to punctuate that fact.

And a big salute and shout out especially to savvy Latino voters who know how to play the Beautiful Game and are playing the political game beautifully. Goal......Goal........ Gooooaaaaalllllll! Go Hillary.

Interesting Victory.

She was held under 50% (Yes folks 49.7% is under 50%) She was held under her Pollster average, Obama easily beat his Pollster average by about 7%.  Hillary did worse then she did in the last state no one could campaign in which was MI, which is odd considering Florida is a state tailor made for her in this primary.  Interesting victory indeed.

Hillary received more votes than the entire 2004 field combined

Why is it a good thing, for a candidate to spend the money given to it by its voters and supporters - to campaign in a state where the delegates will not be counted in convention?

Isn't that a waste of money. Do we want to vote for people who put style over substance?

I am voting for Obama.

One can tell by the above comments just how sadly delusional Obama supporters are.

To begin with, that campaign spent nine months and tens of millions of dollars to bus in total outsiders into Iowa so they might have a head count to give them 38% of caucus goers, yet they clearly lost the bedrock Democrats to Edwards and Clinton that same day.

The anti-Clinton MSM then spun that "victory" into the stratosphere.

After the reality of New Hampshire, Michigan, and Nevada--all Obama losses, everything was concentated upon South Carolina.

South Carolina, the state which the MSM themselves dismissed as racial and unrepresentative when Jesse Jackson claimed it with 64% of the vote in 1988.  

And which obvious fact they flogged Bill Clinton for bringing up.

And so Obama, race-baiting for months there, naturally triumphed--but by losing the lion's share of the non-African-American vote.

Then came Florida, fourth largest state, wherein Clinton trounced Obama (with Edwards yet on the ballot), winning across the board every demographic except African-Americans, and now Obama acolytes try to spin this into insignificance?

Lations have obviously demonstrated--in huge numbers--that they do not want him; likewise huge numbers of women, Jews, Asians, Catholics--well, just about every non-African-American demographic, and there is any other way to spin this except as a disaster for Obama?

Granted that from the outset for the MSM and its minions, this race was neither about McCain nor Obama, but all about stopping the Clintons.

The MSM already have their first honey, McCain, secured for the GOP nod, now they need that last Clinton hater in the bunch, Obama, to somehow go the distance.

But reality insists that Obama, aside from bused-in crowds in Iowa and race-baited South Carolina, has gone nowhere at all.

In my fifty-four years, this is the saddest I have ever viewed political opposition.

After fifteen long years of hate radio and Right Wing pundits, impeachment drives and ceaseless investigations, we Clinton fans know the MSM loathes all things Clinton.

But this year, whether by way of relic Ted Kennedy, or by way of tragic losers John Kerry, Howard Dean, and Bill Bradley, their championing of a three-year novice senator over the accomplished Clintons, has become beyond ridiculous.

What the Florida results clearly revealed is that Obama would be lucky to prevail in African-American communities against John McCain.  After that, McCain becomes a blow-out winner.

That reality has been there throughout 2007 and indeed throughout 2008.  

Too many years of anti-Clinton myopathy has left the MSM deranged.

Reality, even the reality of reality, they may never be able to grasp again.

Again, the unreality of BDM--a spin on a national Gallup poll BEFORE the results of the staggering Clinton victory in Florida, and taking into account only the positives of Obama in the MSM on the days before.  

As a further unreality, not acknowledging just how badly Obama is doing in most of the key states next Tuesday.

And as a final unreality, trying to spin as a positive the fact that the African-American "race" candidate now has no deflection of non-African-Americans as a result of the departure of John Edwards.

Even if one accepted as fact this 6% difference--weighing only the Obama positive days without the great positive of the Clinton huge win in Florida, that margin alone would be a knock-out in national terms between just two candidates.

Unreality upon unreality upon unreality, all borne out by fifteen years of Clinton hating.

Thank the Lord, come Super Tuesday, we core Democrats at last can reclaim our party.

Let's look at some of the facts:

1) It doesn't count.  And since neither candidate campaigned in the state, it's not very representative.

2) Clinton did worse than expectations, Obama did better.

3) Clinton's only won big in states where Obama didn't campaign.

The whole story of this campaign has been, Clinton started with a big lead, due in large part to name recognition and the media treating her as the presumptive nominee early on.  And Obama's gained, and gained, and gained on her.  The better people know Barack Obama, the more they like him.

Now, I don't presume to write any self-congradulatory "and here's what's going to happen on Super Tuesday!" comments, because no one knows what'll happen.  Plus, it's obnoxious as all hell.  But I don't think Florida says anything, other than that Clinton is the "default" candidate for a lot of voters who haven't paid close attention.  Once they get to know Obama, some of them stick with Clinton, some of them go to him.  But it means that the longer the campaign goes on, the better the upside for Obama, and the more of Clinton's support is going to subside.  So it looks like it's a race for her to lock up the nomination before he passes her.  We'll see what happens next week.

Hillary wins where again?

We are six days to Super Tuesday. It is likely that most states will not get even a single event beyond perhaps a rally at an airport, nor does either candidate even with their large amounts of cash raised able to blanket all 22 states with ad buys.

Most people in both large and small states are going to cast their votes based on name recognition, what they see on TV and what they read online and in the newspapers. In other words they will be pulling the trigger based on pretty much the same information base that Floridians did. Moreover the demography of Florida is pretty close to the demography of the country as a whole.

Obamaphiles who don't believe that a 20 point victory in a large diverse state is important are deluding themselves. For one thing it says volumes about electability, certainly Florida is clearly in play for Hillary in November.

Obama supporters continually make the argument that people just won't vote for Hillary. Well the people of the fourth most populous state put paid to that notion. A strategy that relies in whole or in part on selling electability is vulnerable to results that show the opposite effect, and this one does. You can be certain that people would not be so dismissive if Obama had pulled out a narrow win, they would have taken that and rightly so as proof that when voters were given a head to head choice that Hillary was less likely to beat the Republican.

The issue right now is not delegate count but perceptions. Will people in large states show up in large numbers and vote for Hillary even knowing that there is an excellent chance those votes will not translate into seated delegates? Voters in the fourth and eighth largest states answered that in the affirmative. If you get similar margins in California and New York the whole electability argument breaks down entirely, if you put together Calif, NY, MI and FL together in November (where those votes will count) you are a long way towards a Democratic victory.

Most media reports go on to say that no delegates were awarded in the Democratic primary because its timing violated party rules. However few, if any, emphasize that this was not a contested election and that Obama's message and persona were not presented to Florida voters. Of course, the former first lady would win big.

And she'll push to have these delegates counted.

I hope that pundits and editorial writers will criticize the presumptuous, cynical performance by Senator Clinton in holding a "triumphant" victory rally in Florida on election night.

homer   www.altara.blogspot.com