South Carolina Decides...

I am back from California today (and back in the cold of NYC), so I should be back in the swing of things later. I missed the South Carolina primary coverage, but I couldn't escape the headlines of Sen. Obama's victory... he defeated Bill Hillary Clinton by a decent margin. You can see his victory speech here-



Because I am such a pessimist, I remain concerned moving forward. I think the February 5th primaries-- aka MONSTER TUESDAY!-- tend to favor Sen. Clinton, because nationally people will vote for her based on better recognition (ie. in California) or because of home-turf advantage (ie. New York, New Jersey, etc). And in attempting to marginalize Obama, the Clintons lost the temporary SC battle, but may win the larger war. Many voters seem drawn to the bloodthirsty nature of the Clinton machine, believing it will serve us well during her potential presidency, as she takes on the conservative attack machine (ignoring her Senate record of caving to the GOP over and over again).

Moreover, her desire to win at any cost isn't limited to taking down Obama. She is now maneuvering to force the DNC to seat the delegates from Michigan and Florida. The DNC had, of course, stripped those delegates as punishment for the states moving up their primaries. All the candidates pledged not to campaign in those states and took their names off the ballots except Sen. Clinton, who therefore won by default... and now wants the delegates seated because of her little cheat. Shameless. And after going after Obama for acknowledging-- but not praising-- the ideas of the Reagan coalition, the Clintons unleash this general election pitch... Hillary and McCain are BFFs. The Clintons are not to be underestimated.

One bright star for Obama? Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS), who's giving the State of the Union response, will endorse Obama tomorrow.