TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hold Off On Giving Obama A Victory Party

ADVERTISEMENT

By TOM JACKSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 20, 2008

Four months late - four months after he could have shown that the future leader of the free world doesn't take instructions from some puffed-up pipsqueak party bureaucrat about where he can go, who he can speak to and when - the presidential candidate most of America wants to tap a keg with says he's ready to rally the Florida faithful.

Presumably, his belated tour, beginning Wednesday, makes us No. 58 in Sen. Barack Obama's famous accounting of the parade of states he's visited, a spell-potato-worthy episode revealed May 9 in one of his fascinating off-the-teleprompter escapades.

So, here we are, No. 58 on the Obama itinerary even as we elbow our way back toward the top of the swing states - c'mon, Tim Russert, tickle our ears with that magic phrase from October 2000: "Florida, Florida, Florida." And, we wonder, Obama wouldn't overrule Screamin' Howard Dean, and he's going to show Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the public face of Iran's mischief-making mullahs, the iron fist inside the velvet glove?

Color This Space doubtful.

Who's Ready For The Fork?

Illinois' junior senator will luxuriate in the giddy embrace of his Florida Obamaniacs - sure to include no small number of Pascoans - fresh off of an expected 20-point spanking in Kentucky.

His loss in the Bluegrass State (No. 55?) coupled with an expected victory coast in Oregon will mean that over 11 weeks, Obama will have prevailed in five primaries in states with 34 total electoral college votes. Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will have won seven primaries in states with 103 electoral votes.

Nonetheless, with another round of primaries in the sack and the indecipherable rules for delegate selection thwarting Clinton's attempts to close the gap, it will be time to re-cue the superstar chorus - Hey, HC, HC, hang it up, praise be!

Alas, among national journalist-pundits, a contest rages over who will be first to bury Clinton's presidential ambitions. Out! they command. It's over! they clamor.

This activity is not unique to politics. Sports pundits make careers from identifying athletes a half-step past their prime. Done, we say. History. Each time, we dismiss the lesson of Jack Nicklaus and the 1986 Masters when, at 46 and buried by the experts, he stormed to win his record-shattering sixth green jacket.

Possibly Picking Up The Pieces

The lesson of premature disposal looms pertinently today, not only for Clinton, but for Obama - who will be adored to the brink of worship in the Bay area Wednesday - and the Democratic National Committee, which would like a tidy waltz to its August convention. Locally, Democrats John Russell and Bill Mitchell - challengers for congressional seats - endorse Obama and favor Clinton's resignation from the race.

Clinton should not succumb. Not when she's winning purplish states (Ohio, Pennsylvania) the Democratic nominee must hold or win anew to have any shot at the White House. And as long as she's in, the party has an alternative in the sudden event of buyer's remorse - as ought to be the case when Obama proposes a global test for the setting of American thermostats and the amount of food on American dinner plates.

Hanging in as the failsafe option in the plausible event of an Obama meltdown scarcely qualifies as the sundering of the party. In fact, it may just be its salvation.

Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT