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.