Post Primary Perceptions

"can't we all just get along.....?"

that seems to be the message coming out of both camps tonight. and it's turning out to be a long night.

currently, at 10:12 CST...obama has blown clinton away in north carolina. his 14 point lead seems to be holding with 56% to 42%. early in the evening, when it was clear obama would win big... chuck todd of msnbc said a 57% win for obama would completely wipe away hillary's popular vote and pledged delegate net gains in pennsylvania. i'm hearing the 14 points, however, will do enough.

indiana started the evening "too early to call." it is now being categorized as "too close to call." it's interesting to note...fox news call indiana very early in the evening for hillary. they have since reneged that prediction.

her 4 point lead has been holding for nearly an hour in the hoosier state. however, lake county is not reporting their vote and it is a large obama stronghold (it's heavily african american and practically a suburb of chicago). we don't expect those numbers until midnight EST.

so what does all this mean....?

i think any momentum hillary had coming into today has come to a dead stop. she may eke out a win in indiana...but the longer this plays out tonight the more the superdelegates may lose faith in her... which could make them question the idea of overturning the delegate count.

and there was a lot of talk about how hillary moves forward with her campaign after what is a far more disappointing evening tonight that she had hoped for? if she goes on with her campaign and continues to slice and dice obama... it will serve no purpose. she cannot win at this point and i think it will be suicidal for her politically.

continuing to attack obama from this point forward will only accomplish further bloodying of the eventual nominee. it's just not smart politics and it will lose her much favor in the democratic ranks.

now, some interesting points:

obama gave a helluva speech tonight... old school obama. soaring and inspirational. but you heard something new tonight: "unity." there was a lot of talk about the need for unification of the party and coming together for the general.

and guess what....?

hillary spoke about unifying the party and coming together to defeat the republicans in the fall.

i thought hill's speech started off weak and petty... but then she moved into some very powerful language... and spoke about "no matter what happens" she'll work for the democratic nominee. it was such a conciliatory moment. almost as if she sees the writing on the wall.

so what happens now...?

i see more supers coming out for obama. probably as early as tomorrow.

i think hillary goes on to west virginia next week and then kentucky on the 20th. she wins these states and is able to leave the race with her head held high. she quits the negative attacks and focuses solely on her policies and her credentials.

howard fineman reports that the obama camp sees an end to this by may 20th. that's kentucky and oregon. they believe they'll have the majority of pledged delegates and can call the match.

fineman also hears that obama is finally ready to deal on florida and michigan. and why not? they'll no longer matter at this point.... i've heard the idea of giving hillary her florida delegates and then splitting michigan evenly.... sounds fair. and it wouldn't change the outcome for obama.

and hillary can, once again, leave the race with her head held high and fulfilling her promise to have those florida and michigan delegates counted. a win/win.

so we move forward... both candidates in the race (for now). the divisive language stops and both camps begin to unify the party.

kinda depressing for us hillary supporters... but this has been going on for a long time and i think it's time the fighting ends and we begin looking towards defeating mccain in the fall and licking our collective wounds in order to bring the democratic party back together.

and now...some kinda long quick hits:

i may have to start watching cnn a bit more. they had some fiery exchanges tonight. especially if you were watching around 7:40 CST... donna brazile was having a throw-down with paul begala (both dems, mind you) before she started going after republican strategist alex castellano for his idiotic comments. donna was on fire tonight and she was great to listen to.... really talking up unity for the democratic party and how she's "sick of the divisions." god, i do love a strong, black woman.

ronnie, the 'mo from bravo's make me a supermodel, was in attendance at hillary's speech tonight in indianapolis. (i mention this for carey.)

speaking of hillary's speech and hotties... this is the second election night speech (in a row, i think) that had a cute, young latino with boxing gloves standing directly behind hillary. well done...

people have got to stop blowing smoke up rush limbaugh's ass and leading people to believe that his "operation chaos" is doing anything to affect the race. fuck rush. fuck his ditto heads... they mean nothing. they've affected nothing.

i like harold ford, jr. he seems very bright and thoughtful. although... he seems to be really pushing this idea of hillary as obama's veep candidate.

fineman is once again on msnbc and he is saying that the obama camp is starting to have, in very hushed tones, preliminary v.p. candidate discussions. he doesn't see hillary as being the running mate.

nor do i... but i do want to have a vice presidential discussion here soon.... i still have some money on claire maccaskell of missouri.... but we'll see.

i think that's it... i'm looking at about another 20 minutes before more numbers start coming in from indiana. i may pop on one last time... or i may wait until morning.

and fuck me! i just realized i've gone this entire night without a cocktail.

surprising. but good for me...

dems '08!

e.