Last update - 00:00 06/03/2008
Those who left Hillary for dead, get ready for a long fight
With big wins in Texas and Ohio, Clinton proved the Democrats' race for the nomination is far from over.
By Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz Correspondent
OHIO - On the long, rainy road from Toledo, Ohio to the capital Columbus in the heart of the Buckeye state, the radio stays tuned to ultra-Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.
"These Clintons are like cockroaches. They'll be the last thing left after a nuclear blast," Limbaugh delicately says when describing Hillary's victory over Obama in three states Tuesday night. These wins gave her campaign a new lease on life and valuable delegates from large states Texas and Ohio.
Limbaugh, along with his fellow right-wing talk radio hosts, (including Cincinatti's own Bill Cunningham, who never fails to call Obama by his middle name Hussein, pronouncing the name with as much venom as he can muster) are definitely not Republican nominee John McCain's biggest fans. Nonetheless, they have put their weight behind convincing their listeners to vote for Hillary Clinton in their states' primaries, under the belief that she will be easier for McCain to defeat in a general election.
Those of you who left Hillary for dead in the race for the White House, get ready for a long, drawn out fight. Recent surveys have shown that in the upcoming Pennsylvania primaries, the fight is far from over.
The vote in Pennsylvania is still a month and a half away and Obama is trailing, if only by a small margin. Obama will probably take Wyoming and Mississippi this week, and despite his setbacks in Ohio and Texas, he is still the front-runner in the race. He has won more delegates, and for Hillary to overtake him now will call for some pretty unusual circumstances.
Here's the picture set before us after Hillary's big wins in Ohio and Texas: Clinton is still in the fight, but not as the leading candidate.
Also, recent events demand that you save the date of June 7, when the voters of Puerto Rico head to the polls. The 63 delegates up for grabs in the U.S. territory could be decisive, and both candidates are sure to stay in the race until every vote on the island is counted.
On Wednesday, Clinton hinted that she would ask Obama to be her running mate if she wins the Democratic nomination. Democrats would salivate over a presidential ticket that strong, but Clinton's words could be just that, nothing more than campaign strategy meant to persuade a voter or two here or there to join her camp.
An early announcement of a running mate could also hurt Clinton, as it did Ronald Reagan in the 1976 Republican primaries, when he selected moderate Republican Senator Richard Shweiker of Pennsylvania as his running mate before the race was over. Many think this choice lost the Gipper favor with conservative Republicans, helping pave the way for Gerald Ford to take the nomination.
Shalom from Washington
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are coming to Washington next week, and the chances they will meet with either of the two leading democratic candidates are slim to none (Update: Barak cancelled his visit because of the situation in Gaza).
A meeting with the two Israeli ministers would be a chance for either democratic candidate to show their solidarity with the Jewish state, as would signing a recent petition for sanctions on Iran's national bank. The petition, initiated by New York Senator Chuck Shumer, has received the written support of half of the Democratic senators and only verbal support from Hillary and Obama, for the meantime.
On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of a motion to criticize the recent firing of Qassam rockets and Grad missiles at Israeli communities in the western Negev. The new U.S. Ambassador to Israel, James Cunningham stepped onto this minefield this week, making his support for Israel known.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) issued its expected support of the motion, which passed in Congress by a vote of 404 to 4.
Most of these 404 congressmen will be running for reelection soon, and if a recent Gallup poll is any indication, support for Israel is and will remain an important issue to voters.
The Gallup poll, which was published this week, found that 70% of the American public sees Israel in a positive light, ranking Israel fifth after the U.K., Canada, Japan, and Germany in terms of how positive they view its relationship with the U.S.
The Palestinian Authority on the other hand, didn't fare so well. The PA only managed a 14% approval rate among voters, the lowest score of any country not named Iran or North Korea.
Flawed system
A few Democratic congressmen have come to the conclusion that the process by which the party elects its candidates is flawed, and have expressed their discontent with the series of primaries which are running up a hefty price tag and providing republican competitors with no shortage of ammunition to use against the Democratic Party.
The problem is that when the Democratic delegates are divvied up, big wins in big states don't constitute dramatic, decisive victories, as opposed to in a general election.
Another interesting revelation of the poll is that two-thirds of the voters feel that the so-called "super delegates," (lawmakers and party officials who retain their independence regardless of the primary results), should decide their vote based solely on the results of the primaries.
Under these circumstances, and if Obama continues to lead through March, even by a small margin, it will be difficult for the super delegates to rule him out and award the nomination to Clinton. If they do otherwise, they run the risk of losing angry and disappointed supporters.
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