How About Those Primary Results?

Well, for those of us who were confident that Obama would find his way to the White House, the latest primaries give some pause to that vision. Clinton won three of the four primaries last night, and most importantly, won the important states Texas and Ohio. What a surprise. However, when I looked at the polls this morning, she was a declared winner, at 51% to Obama's 48%, with only 60% of the polls reporting. That's kind of premature, but what do I know. Well, I do know that in VA, the final numbers were very different than the numbers at 60%.

How do I feel? Well, I voted for Obama in the VA primary, but I have been a long time Clinton supporter. The thing that turned me around was watching him handle a TV interviewer the night before the election. The news guy was trying to get a rise out of Obama by asking him to respond to the fact that he'd been labeled as the most liberal member of the Senate. Now, I had just watched Clinton responding to these types of questions with understandable hostility and defensiveness.

What I saw with Obama was different, refreshing, and masterful. His response to the charge that he was liberal was to turn the conversation back on the interviewer. He said something like, "Liberal is an old term associated with old hate politics. I am about a new time in America and won't be identified by these old-fashioned terms." I have his quote wrong, but I do recall sitting there thinking, "Yeah, finally, someone is defining himself, rather than allowing the media to do it to them." He handled the whole event masterfully, not defensively at all, and I was won over at that moment. My biggest fear for him was that he would be another Jimmy Carter, full of idealism and hope, but incapable of handling the so-called liberal media machine, which is nothing more than a tool of the hate mongering right. But after watching that, my fears abated.

I would still be happy as can be if Clinton wins the nomination. I like both of them. I guess the best candidate will emerge at the end.