Tuesday, February 03, 2004

A Super Tuesday . . . for Some

So anyway, without Newzcrawler I'm in a bit of an information void, but I do know that Kerry did well today, and Edwards stayed alive. Yep, that's all Edwards did. Winning South Carolina was the bare minimum he could do to be a viable candidate, so let's not get too excited about him at this point.

Now it's obvious that Kerry/Edwards would be a strong ticket, because if Edwards could bring in a few southern states, that might be all that's needed in a close election. Of course, many political scientists and pollsters will tell you that the vice presidential choice means almost nothing in the end, but whatever small aid Edwards would bring could be useful.

However, Edwards said point-blank on Fox News tonight that he doesn't want to be Kerry's vice presidential nominee. That could be taken to mean "Well, I'd prefer not to be vice president, because I'd rather be president, if you hadn't noticed. But if push comes to shove, I don't have a senate seat to go back to, so why not?" But I don't think that's what he's saying. I think Edwards has different plans. I think he knows that being Kerry's vice president means that he must wait in the wings for a few years, doing nothing much, only to play a guessing game with Hillary when he's done. I could see Edwards thinking it isn't worth it, and it's better to go president-or-bust now, and do something else if he fails.

Dean's on his dying breath. I think it's bascially over. I watched him on Meet the Press on Sunday, and this was a desperate man. It was one hour of Dean telling you he could still win, but not giving any real reason why. He couldn't say with a straight face he was going to win anything today, but he did say things like "I'm going to win overall because I have a real message" or "I'm going to win by stealing delegates away with strong finishes everywhere" (I'm paraphrasing). So much for that. How many delegates did he pick up today, less than 5? Perhaps none? The best he can hope for is some bargaining power at the convention. The Dean experiment, as Dean-O-Phobe said, is dead. But the New York Times thinks he still has a "small window", so what do I know.

Wes Clark isn't fairing much better. He might even lose his own state (though it looks like he'll win Oklahoma by less than 1%). Then again, he peaked a while ago, and his peak wasn't very high. I guess you can only expect so much from a philanderling nit-wit with only superficial attractiveness (as Peggy Noonan sees him). But if Noonan's right, one can see why he won the Madonna and Michael Moore vote. Are they delegates? No? Well, I'm sure they're Super Delegates in their own mind.

If Dean's on his last breath, Lieberman already had a Costco parking lot paved over his grave site. Apparently my Arizona theory was wrong, because he didn't do too well there. This stands in opposition to his real focus, Delaware, where he only lost by 40%. But at least he can rightfully claim his "three-way-tie" in that regard.

Watching Lieberman's exit speech, it really hit home why his turn-out was not simply bad (being a lone voice on the other side of a rift in your party is never good news), but piss poor. He's just too nice, as many commentators noted. When Lieberman says "I stand for a strong national defense," he says it with an inflection that reminds me of Ned Flanders coaching little leaguers. I almost expect him to give a cute "grrrr" at the end, as if to say, "yeah, I'm a tough soccer-dad! Now let's all go for ice cream!"

Kucinich is still hoping for the cuban vote. Not cuban-americans, mind you. I'm thinking more like Castro.

And last, and least, is Al Sharpton. He's still looking for a delegate so he can trade him or her for influence. Tell you what Al, I'll give you a ham sandwich for your delegate if you get one. As Fred Barnes put it, "Al Sharpton is no Jesse Jackson." Which, coming from Fred Barnes, is like saying "Barry Manilow is no Liberace."

Speaking of Liberace, hope everyone had a super Tuesday, with more super tuesdays to come.

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