Also listed in: Barack Obama 08' Portland Group | Oregonians for Obama | Washington County Oregon

At Blue Oregon yesterday there was a post (from Josh Kardon who is the chair of the Oregon Steering Committee for Hillary Clinton for President and also Senator Ron Wyden's chief-of-staff) and comments concerning the Hillary question: How come Obama can't seal the deal for the nomination?

http://www.blueoregon.com/2008/04/the-post-pennsy.html

I read it today in the weekly digest from Blue Oregon and immediately thought that it is Hillary, not Obama, who couldn't seal the deal from the get go. And, to give due credit, in the comments posted in reply to Kardon, Joel Dan Walls (see the post script below) did get that basic point out.

So, quickly, think back to a year ago when eight Dems were all vying for the 2008 nomination, wasn't Hillary the one who had it all going? Name recognition, experienced staff, the most money (including some of Rupert Murdoch's) and the sense of her inevitability? Remember "Hillary Clinton and the seven dwarfs" comments and snickers?

So, who couldn't seal the deal? I'm impressed by Obama more and more. And I was (and still am) a Richardson partisan. Hillary couldn't seal the deal when many of us thought/feared she had the nomination "bought and paid for" as we resolved to support our candidate for 2008 at our New Years Eve celebrations on 12/31/2007. Anyone who could beat the GOP candidate and start to reclaim the USA as a country concerned with its constitution, with its place in the community of nations, and with a healthy return to issues of peace, justice, equity, and fairly shared responsibilities and opportunities.

Obama rolled forward through 2007 and across the primary and caucus contests with energy, basic fair play, a call to new participation, and a sense of leadership that might well help this nation reclaim a thoughtful - more inclusive - better issue oriented - less corporatist government. Give him credit. My guy, Bill Richardson, and Edwards, Dodd, Biden and the rest couldn't compete with Obama in the competition to vie with the Clinton campaign. In contrast the Hillary campaign has talked less and less about issues and has used both overt and covert appeals to the politics of fear concerning war, race, religion and the newer paradigm.

No wonder none of those " seven dwarfs" have endorsed Hillary. And some of the leading seven have spoken up to endorse Obama. Hillary can't seal the deal, ever, while Obama will have the lead at the end of the primary season in delegates, in the popular vote (even including Florida, if you wish), in state contests won, and in dignity remaining.

I'm even becoming happier by the day that our primary in Oregon will matter in this race.

So, again, don't fall for the Hillary spin. "Sealing the deal" can take a while when one begins as a "dwarf" instead of as a "princess." But what any reasonable observer now sees in the Democratic Party's exercise of the democratic process is that Barack Obama is now the "giant" in the quest for the White House.

Give thanks that the "ogre" of the Bush / Cheney legacy, and the "troll - like" policies of John McCain, will not prevail. Unless, of course, the "princess" spoils everything by and in a fit of selfishness beyond anything ever seen before.







PS: here's Joel Dan Walls comment posted in reply to Josh Kardon, as referenced earlier: Wow, some amazingly pathetic spinmeistering going on here, Mr Kardon. Have you ever heard of a candidate named Hillary Clinton who told us all last fall, and going into the early primaries, how she was going to wrap things up on February 5? Geez Louise, it would appear that Sen. Clinton failed to "seal the deal" when she said she would. Maybe you need to write some sort of smart-ass commentary about that.Are you suffering from selective amnesia, or simply cranking out the spin "talking points" that just showed up on your fax machine?