A Scary Upset

A huge upset in the IL-14 special election to replace former Speaker Dennis Hastert. Republican Jim Oberweis, millionare Dairy Farmer, LOST to first time Democratc Candidate Bill Foster. This seat was supposed to stay Republican, and the NRCC spent a ton of money in the district to make sure it did. Despite the fact that Oberweis had a tough primary against state Senator Chris Lauzen, he was still expected to win (at least publicly). I know we are not supposed to look for signs in early random Congressional elections, BUT no one can spin this as a good thing. This is scary. If Republicans can't hold on to this seat, how bad is it going to be in November?

There Will Be Blood

Democrats are the party of fairness, or so they claim. They fight against the "racists" and hate-mongers who "disenfranchise" on the right.

Which party has super delegates? You know, the Democrat party insiders who are free to vote for whomever they want. They can vote for the candidate that carried their state or congressional district. Or not. They could vote for the Democrat nominee that promises the most campaign cash or patronage jobs. Or not.

Funny, the party that tells us that they put their "people" in front of the "powerful" (Al Gore's former campaign slogan), they let the politically powerful decide what is the best for the people. They don't trust the people. They never have. They trust their elitist pals.

The DNC made their rules in terms of which states vote when. Florida and Michigan broke the rules that everyone agreed to. Florida and Michigan knew the consequences. Now, that the Hillary-Obama race is tight, the delegates in these two states want a re-vote.

Hillary wants a "do-over." The governors of the two states want a do-over as well. Does Obama take up the re-vote mantle or will he choose to disenfranchise the sizable electorate of those two states? A black guy not letting the votes count?? That would be interesting. A Clinton changing the rules in the middle of the game? Well, that is a shocker. Democrats wanting to keep counting the votes in Florida until the outcome changes? Didn't we see that show already?

The Hillary-Obama race will be a battle for the ages. It will likely go to the convention. Will there be a re-vote in Florida and Michigan? Will the super delegates thwart the will of the people at the behest of the powerful?

I know one thing for sure. There will be blood. And, it will be fun!

Obama only has Obama to blame for “big” loss – McCain has lessons learned

So we just witnessed what was a “big” win for the Clinton campaign on Super Tuesday Duece. For those of us who didn’t get sucked into the hype, we knew that the numbers weren’t going to show a big win or loss for either candidate when the dust settled because of the proportional set-up. None-the-less, here we are talking about the “big” Clinton win. Although I don’t care fundamentally who emerges as the Dem’s nominee, if I had to credit this outcome, I would say Clinton didn’t win as much as Obama lost.

This is for two main reasons. First, Obama raised the stakes when he forced the idea through his base endorsers that this was a “must win” for Clinton. Logically, if it was a “must win” then it “must” be important and if she didn’t win, then it “must” be a big loss. Essentially, he raised the stakes (when it didn’t really matter on paper) and Clinton called him out. Now, instead of claiming a 12-3 record in the recent contests, Obama is spending time explaining why his half-dozen delegate loss wasn’t really as big a loss as he said it would have been (had the loss been Clinton’s.)

Second, I think we owe McCain some credit for this. He briefly went on the aggressive against Obama and won. During the short lived back and forth between McCain and Obama on the war and AQI, voters saw that while Obama is more eloquent at delivering a message, McCain has him beat when it comes to the facts. Again, Obama can thank Obama for this outcome. This helped weaken Obama’s “experience” image enough to help Clinton grab her win.

Good lesson learned for McCain – if it comes to Obama and McCain, attack him often, clearly and aggressively on issues and let Obama take care of the rest. If the last few days are any indication, Obama won’t disappoint when it comes to beating Obama.