TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Rising From The Ashes

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 10, 2008

Can Barack Obama be stopped? Quite possibly, as Hillary Clinton's startling win Tuesday night demonstrated. Can Mitt Romney be started? Doubtful, as the decisive John McCain victory showed.

On the Democratic side, New Hampshire has once again turned a Clinton into a Comeback Kid, and the Democrats have a heck of a race. Going into yesterday's voting, trailing glowing media coverage and favorable polling, Obama looked like he had the wind of history at his back. The astonishing Clinton comeback suggests that many Democratic voters think it's hot air.
Exit polling indicated that economic anxiety helped Clinton. Additionally, her spontaneous emotional moment in the diner Monday might have been a turning point for a candidate faulted for her controlled inauthenticity. True, Clinton will never be able to out-charisma Obama, but her strong suit is her policy knowledge and expertise.

To some, Obama is the dashing sweetheart you fall in love with, but Clinton is the reliable one you marry. Tuesday night proves Obama can't float to Super Tuesday on Feb. 5 propelled by oratorical poetry - his concession speech Tuesday night was spectacular - and great gusts of good feeling. He needs to get real serious, real fast.

As for the Republicans, John McCain staged a Lazarus-like return from the political dead in the Granite State and is once again a leading GOP contender. This is second huge loss in less than a week for Romney, whom Mike Huckabee whipped badly in Iowa.

Romney had been leading in both states for quite some time. After chalking up his Iowa loss to the evangelical vote, what excuse does the former governor of next-door Massachusetts(!) have now? None.

Michigan, whose GOP primary occurs in six days, is Romney's last real chance. He leads Michigan polls - but only by a hairsbreadth ahead of Huckabee, Tuesday night's third-place finisher. A poll of likely GOP voters showed that the economy is the most important issue to anxious Michigan voters, followed by immigration. Both issues favor Huckabee over Romney or McCain.

But would anyone dare to make a confident prediction now, in either party's contest? The current political atmosphere is more volatile and open-ended than anyone imagined. The primary season is young yet, but it's already like the weather in Texas: If you don't like it, wait five minutes, because it's bound to change.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT