We may conclude three things with absolute certainty after the Pennsylvania primary. The first is that Hillary Clinton is a formidable campaigner, and as her deadpan consumption of a shot of Crown Royal attests, possesses the requisite combination of nerve and psychosis to run for president, serve, and thrive. This is the fourth cycle in which we have been assured that Mrs Clinton is a dead duck, and speculation has been rife about who would be delegated (Vernon Jordan? Dianne Feinstein? Hugh Rodham?) to persuade her to withdraw from the race–only to be followed by a decisive victory in an important state for the Democrats. The second conclusion is that, despite the soothing affirmation of the media–especially after his ‘historic’ speech on race–Barack Obama has been grievously wounded by the Reverend Wright and Obama’s ‘bitter . . . cling . . . guns . . . religion’ comments about the great unwashed to an appreciative cocktail audience in San Francisco. Suddenly Obama does not seem so much a national treasure as a callow freshman senator who, after a lifetime of being told how remarkable he is, finds himself stunned and angry to encounter resistance. The third conclusion is that Sen Clinton’s prospects for the nomination have risen from the 10 percent universally ascribed to her before Pennsylvania to something in the neighborhood of 35-45 percent. She has every reason to persist; the superdelegates have every reason to ignore Dr Dean and continue enjoying the attention; and she has certainly demonstrated that her appeal to voters is significantly broader than Sen Obama’s in places and categories that are critical to any Democratic victory in November. The death match continues, thank God.
