If I Were Hillary I'd....
03/08/2008
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... well, fill in your own punchline.

But if I were in her shoes ... nah ...

Okay, Hillary likely can't catch up in delegates unless Obama gets caught in some scandal that doesn't have anything to do with race. It can't be something that black politicians are stereotypically caught at, like money or sex or drugs, or it won't get any play. Because, you know, then it would be a stereotype and stereotypes can't be true.

Thus, Obama's got to show up on Youtube pummeling an endangered raptor to death with his putter because it cawed during his crucial putt on the 18th green, or some other kind of scandal that Ted Knight's Judge Smail's character in "Caddyshack" would get caught in. (By the way, Obama is a fairly enthusiastic golfer, but that doesn't get mentioned much.)

So, then it comes down to the Superdelegates. The point of the Superdelegates is to huddle in a smoke-free room and come up with the nominee who is best for the Party. But if Obama comes to the Convention with a lead in regular delegates of, say, 48% - 45% over Hillary, it's going to be hard for the Supers to come up with a plausible reason to overrule the regulars. What, Hillary didn't get a fair chance? She lacked name recognition? C'mon ...

To have a chance, Hillary's got to win it in the polling booths. But she's just about run out of states to make the case that she'd be the better candidate in November because momentum is now on her side. All Obama has to do is run out the clock and not screw up.

What Hillary should do, therefore, is call for a Best of Three Big Purple State Playoff: Pennsylvania, plus re-doing Florida and Michigan, which the Democratic National Committee said they wouldn't count because they moved their primaries to January. Those three states comprise 65 of the 270 electoral votes you need to win.

Florida and Michigan say it would cost $28 million to hold another election. Hillary should offer to pay for the elections herself, if necessary.

This would put Obama in a bit of a spot. "Let's not let Florida and Michigan participate in selecting the nominee" isn't an appealing slogan.

His better response would be along the lines of, "Sure, let's compete in Florida and Michigan. I certainly can't afford to pay for the elections (as you all can see by looking at my tax returns, which, by the way, I've released), but if Senator Clinton can somehow afford it, let's do it. But this "Best of Three" stuff is nonsense. There's no reason any one state is more important than any other. Just add up all the delegates after all the states have voted and see who's ahead. That's the fair way to do it."

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