2008 Woodie Awards
Obama vs. Hillary, the winner is McCain
By: Cory Truax
Issue date: 4/9/08 Section: Opinion
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Voters are relating the Republican Party - in many cases unfairly - with an unpopular war, a credit crisis that is straining the economy, a ballooning federal deficit and prohibitively high gas prices.
This should be a year laden with Democrat victories. But U.S. Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have managed to even the playing field with their nomination competition, which is destined to stretch all the way to the Democrat Convention.
While the Democrat candidates have been trading rhetorical barbs and weathering scandals, U.S. Sen. John McCain has been touring Europe and the Middle East, forging alliances, and bolstering his resume and becoming an eminently qualified commander-in-chief.
Furthermore, the scandals on the Democrat side may have extensive consequences.
Senator Obama's major gaffe emanated from his controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and Clinton's came from a "misstatement" about a trip to Kosovo she took as First Lady.
Obama's damage control was less than sterling, however.
When trying to justify his close relationship with his pastor - who had spoken harshly about American whites, American culture and Jews - he managed to make matters worse by correlating his white grandmother, whom he described as "uttering racial stereotypes" and feeling nervous when a black person passed her on the street, to the "typical white person." (Those are his words, not mine).
Hillary's scandal caused her to stumble as well.
She had been dispensing a story on the campaign trail about landing amidst sniper fire in Kosovo. Unfortunately for her though, video of that visit surfaced with her and 15-year-old Chelsea walking happily about the Tarmac, greeting locals and small children.
Both candidates can be assured of this: once one of them becomes the nominee, Republicans will revisit these scandals ad nauseum. And the American people are comfortable with neither a racist pastor nor a liar.
Inexplicably though, despite the nature and blundered handling of the Wright situation, Obama has closed the gap on Clinton in Pennsylvania polls and widened his lead in North Carolina - the final two significant states in the primary process.
The outcome of those races will be significant, but only marginally so.
Neither Obama nor Clinton is mathematically capable of winning the 2,028 delegates required to claim the Democrat nomination outright. Therefore, the fate of the party's nomination rests with 796 Super Delegates - Democrat officials and office holders from around the country.
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