Slate: The Hillary Deathwatch

[AtomicKitten]

The Hillary DeathwatchClinton edges out Obama in the debate, but he picks up two more superdelegates.
By Chadwick Matlin
Posted Thursday, April 17, 2008, at 1:00 PM ET
http://www.slate.com/id/2189362/



The 21st debate has come and gone, and the general consensus is that Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama behind the lecterns. Her win barely outweighs the announcement of two more superdelegates and a newspaper endorsement for Obama. As a result, her chances of winning the nomination glide upward by 0.3 points to 10.7 percent.

The debate in Philadelphia—which was near-universally panned in the blogosphere—spent its first hour on process questions. Usually, this would have hurt Clinton, whose mastery of policy details has shone through in previous debates. But last night, Obama bore the brunt of the process questions. It was like a guilt-by-association greatest hits—we heard about former Weatherman Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, and the "cling" thing. The result, aside from getting people to turn off their TVs, was to remind viewers that Obama could be vulnerable to Republican attacks in the general election.

For Clinton, this was the best-case scenario. As much lip service as the candidates give to remaining primary voters, the struggle is really for superdelegates. The more Clinton can remind superdelegates that Obama isn't Mr. Clean, the more likely they'll be to subvert the voters' will and vote for her at the convention. Granted, there's that whole "subvert the voters' will" thing that gets in the way, but those are details that can be hammered out later.

[C_U_L8R]

1. I don't think they've consider the backwash.

The blowback that is gonna sink the Sink come Tuesday.

For good.

[AtomicKitten]

2. fingers crossed ;)