Dear Editor,
On the heels of winning five states over the weekend, Senator Obama is also expected to win three more contests today. His victories were huge blowouts and have dealt a serious blow to the Clinton campaign. Obama won in Maine on Sunday. Maine has a 98% white population, more women, and workers who are considered as “blue collar” (demographics that should have favoured Clinton). He also won the predominantly white populated Nebraska on Saturday. With these victories he has demonstrated that he has a very diverse coalition and broad appeal. Overall, Obama has won 19 states to Clinton’s 10.
While Obama is glowing and has enormous momentum, the Clinton campaign seems to be falling apart. Red flags were waved when she announced after “Super Tuesday” that she had “loaned” her campaign $5 million to compete with Obama. This was a surprising admission to many observers who wondered if that was the beginning of the end for Clinton and also raised questions about her ability to mange the US economy, if she couldn’t even manage her own campaign finances. This speculation was further reinforced on Sunday when she announced that she was replacing her campaign manager.
Clinton has also been changing her positions (flip-flopping) and postures according to what her strategists tell her that the America people want to hear. She is now calling Barack Obama the “establishment” candidate and has adopted his slogan of change after polls indicated that people value change over experience.
If Clinton doesn’t find a way to regain the momentum, without playing the crying game, before the Texas and Ohio contests in March, she might very well end up like Rudy Giuliani who placed all his bets on entering the race late and had no momentum to compete when it mattered.
Yours faithfully,
Clinton Urling
