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Tuesday: WI-WA-HI Eve
posted at 2008-02-19 22:06 | Last modified 2008-02-20 13:37
Or should that be HI-WA-WI? Either way, there wasn’t much good news tonight for Hillary Clinton.
As of 11:30 pm, CNN had called Wisconsin, while pundits were predicting Washington and Hawaii for Obama. Sure, she barely mounted a challenge against him in Hawaii, but she could have used a little cheddar-head love tonight. Still, I’m not the only one who thinks it’s too early to count her out.
"Kool-aid" cattle call
NYT’s David Brooks took a more-or-less good-natured poke today at Obamania. Not that he’s the first, of course: Dahlia Lithwick offered this break-up letter last week, and her colleagues at Slate have even come up with a Facebook widget for the Encyclopedia Baracktannica.
Joking aside, the latest national Gallup numbers make you wonder whether the recent controversy over Obama’s “borrowed language” might have done some damage. Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown wonders whether the plagiarism story might even give Obama an “authenticity deficit.”
Brown’s fellow Politico Mike Allen reports the Obama campaign is accusing the Clinton camp of fueling and fanning the controversy. (The AP agrees.) What, you’re not shocked? Obama's campaign clearly isn’t used to being on the defensive - not surprising, given how few attacks he's faced so far. They’d better get ready for a whole lot more of them if he wins the nomination.
Ad, subtract: The sequel
The Perdue campaign sent out a release today explaining why they’re backing off their ad campaign: because Richard Moore is. It’s just that simple, according to David Kochman, who also still insists that Moore’s message isn’t working.
Meantime, Insider guru Scott Mooneyham says history indicates Moore might be in real trouble if he doesn’t make some headway in the polls soon. (HT: Dome.) I don’t know if I agree. Scott’s a really smart guy, so I'm inclined to. But I don’t think there’s been any year in recent memory that’s been comparable in terms of voter interest or turnout. And polling this year hasn’t exactly been great, either.
Speaking of polls…
PPP’s latest NC tracking poll puts McCain comfortably out in front on the GOP side, but Tom Jensen says it also shows growing support for Dems - especially Obama, and especially among young voters. The results are here.
The US Senate numbers are even more interesting. Incumbent Elizabeth Dole isn’t exactly burning up the charts, but neither of her would-be Dem challengers seem to be picking up the votes she’s losing. I’d guess that’s because most folks don’t know who they are - both Kay Hagan and Jim Neal have spent the bulk of their time so far raising money, not stumping. That’s already starting to change. We’ll have to see whether the numbers follow suit.
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