Sunday, January 27, 2008

Obliterating the Front-Runner, cont.

Obama won South Carolina and he won big.

This was predicted weeks ago for two reasons: over half of South Carolina voters are black and it's John Edwards' home state - which bleeds some Hillary support. Obama's win is bigger than expected, but not any sort of surprise to anyone who is following the primaries closely. South Carolina has long been seen to be Obama's strongest primary state. Alabama, which is another state with a high population of black voters, is polling for Clinton.

The media reaction is a tad disingenuous. As the South Carolina results came in last night, CNN reporters practically lept up and down, shouting in faux amazement that Obama had whupped Clinton. That let them open the door to an analysis of why Clinton lost, and to repeat the lies and misinformation of the last week: the media-created fiction that Bill Clinton is divisive and Hillary Clinton is a dirty politician.

The really telling aspect of media coverage last night and today is that it is all about Clinton losing, rather than about Obama winning. The media is twisting this win to continue their character assassination of the Clintons. The story is still all about obliterating the Democratic front-runner.

And front-runner she still is. As of today, Clinton has 249 delegates; Obama has 167; and Edwards has 58. In national polls, Clinton is at 43% and Obama is at 35%. Perhaps the best thing for her candidacy would be to slip from that spot for a moment so that the ravaging attack dogs of the press can start turning their rabid eyes on Obama. In any event, the character assassination by the media is in such high gear that Hillary's lead is very much in jeopardy.

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