Can Obama Run Out the Clock?

[kennetha]

Let's start by reviewing where we have been in recent days.

Since his string of wins after Super Tuesday, the primary season has not been kind to Barack Obama. First came Hillary's "saving" wins in the Ohio and the Texas Primaries, with RI thrown in as an added bonus. These wins came with Obama still playing at the top of his game, before Wright and Bittergate had emerged as issues. Talk among many Obama leaning pundits was that he would certainly win one or the other and would thereby close down the Clinton campaign.

Didn't happen! Even though he outspent her in both Texas and Ohio, even though he was coming ofF his impressive string of post-super Tuesday victories, with every advantage imaginable, even though his positives were soaring and her negatives high, she went toe-to-toe with him and won. She won a straight-up political fight, without having to resort to any particularly dirty, negative, racially tinged or particularly divisive tactics. The "hardest" blow thrown was Clinton's 3am ad, which may have swung Texas in her favor. And though some Obama supporters saw that as negative, that charge seems to me quite a stretch.

Could it be that Obama has something of a glass jaw?

Then came the interminable gap between Ohio and Pennsylvania. Obama spent and spent and spent. He saturated the airwaves in every corner of the state. But he still came up very short -- partly because of Wright, partly because of Bittergate, partly because of demography, partly because neither his message nor his personality seem to inspire a certain segment of the democratic electorate.

Obama's soft underbelly has been exposed. What can he do to "get back on track?"

The problem is, his act had already grown stale. He and his team seem to have no new ideas, no new plays up their sleeves. As some journalist said -- can't remember who -- he already desperately needed a second act. But I don't think he really has one. He and his team are like an NFL team that's ahead by a touchdown, late in the fourth quarter of a tight game. They are playing prevent defense against a determined offense that keeps chewing up more and more ground. Their only hope is that the clock will run out.

But here's the problem. The clock won't be allowed to "run out" if the Wright flap causes Obama to tank in both NC and Indiana on Tuesday. If that happens, the superdelegates will, in effect, reset the clock. That's because they will want to see if Obama can get back on his stride in one of the few remaining contests. They will want to know whether the guy has an A-game left in him. They will not give the nomination to a guy just because he outscored the opponent in the first three quarters, especially not if the opponent is the one scoring all the points and playing at the top her game in the final quarter.

So I see a real danger for Obama here. If he can't get back to playing his game and setting the terms of the debate, then he looks like a guy still ahead but playing prevent defense, with the clock being his only ally. But since the Supers really get to reset the clock and since they want a winner, and not merely a survivor, they will not let him win just because he manages to "run out the clock." He's actually got to affirmatively take Hillary down and not just stumble his way to victory.

[geiger]

1. wait a minute; it's the HRC camp trying to run out the clock, not the other way around.

[kennetha]

2. How so?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. 68% in the remaining contests.

Then we can talk about coming up short.

[Th1onein]

4. Always the ones UNDER 1000 posts, you notice?

Geez. They are so predictable!

What happened? Rush get you all fired up?

[onehandle]

5. How many posts does it take?

1001? 1500?

Or maybe it's 2345, like you.

I have 11542 posts. I think that's the magic number.

[kennetha]

6. Better 1 wise post

than 1,000 foolish ones!