The full-court press to force Hillary from the presidential race ain't working. She will win the West Virginia, Kentucky, and Puerto Rico primaries.
But the screwed-up, patchwork system the Democrats are using to choose delegates has given small states, which are unlikely to be in the Democratic column come November, inordinate influence.
At the same time, the big states that will play an instrumental role in the November general election--New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Texas, and California--are being treated like they are Iowa and Idaho.
It will boil down to the decision of the super delegates.
I am a pessimist. Even though Hillary is the one who wins the big states that will count in the fall, the "supers" appear to be moving toward Obama. Even though Hillary has more popular votes and polls much better among the Reagan democrats, the supers appear to be moving toward Obama.
Hillary's only hope is that the super delegates will come to their senses and realize that Barack Obama's relationships with the corrupt Tony Rezko, the racist-wife stealing Jeremiah Wright, and the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers will provide the Republicans with ammunition they have never had at hand to use against the Democrats' candidate. This is particularly true of that flag stomper, Bill Ayers.
Think not? Just read what the execrable Bob Novak wrote today:
The test of Obama's strategy may be his friendship with and support from William Ayers, an unrepentant member of the Weathermen terrorist underground of the 1960s and '70s. Instead of totally disavowing Ayers as he belatedly did his former pastor, Obama potentially deepened his problem by referring to Ayers as just a college professor -- "a guy who lives in my neighborhood." He then compared their relationship to his friendship with conservative Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, just as he compared Wright's racism to his white grandmother's.
Democrats abhor bringing up what Obama calls Ayers's "detestable acts 40 years ago," but they will be brought into the public arena even if that is not McCain's style of politics. A photo of Ayers stomping on the American flag in 2001 has been all over the Internet this week. That was the year Obama accepted a $200 political contribution from Ayers and the year in which the former Weatherman said: "I don't regret setting bombs; I feel we didn't do enough."
While McCain will not demand a response from Obama, others will. How the prospective nominee handles this will help define whether he is seen as flawed or fantastic in the long campaign ahead.
We may now understand why Barack does not wear a flag lapel pin. He's afraid that Bill Ayers will stomp on him. In reality, it will be the relationship with Bill Ayers that will empower the Republicans to destroy the candidacy of Barack Obama.
This is not a question of whether or not the Republicans will use this material. They will. So what is there to find? That is the area of greatest danger for the Democrats. Obama has lied about his longstanding relationship with Bill Ayers.
Why? What is he hiding? As I have pointed out before, 1995 was a critical year in the Obama/Ayers relationship. It was in 1995 that Barack was tabbed by Ayers to be the Chairman of the Annenberg Challenge (a failed $50 million project). That same year, Barack sat at a kitchen table with Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Bill's wife, a plotted the ouster of Alice Palmer, who Obama took down in order to secure his place in the Illinois state senate.
If the Super Delegates do not insist on a full and complete disclosure from Barack Obama about his ties to Bill Ayers, the Republicans will force the issue in the fall. It is one thing to have a name that sounds like the terrorist who attacked us on 9-11. But it is an entirely different matter to be close friends with an unrepentant terrorist who bombed U.S. Government buildings.
There is no where to run. The relationship is genuine. This is a stonewall that will not stand.