Primary Colors: March 19, 2008

It’s been a busy couple of days; let’s get to it.

Pennsylvania votes on April 22nd–according to Pollster, the Keystone State gives Clinton a 51.2% to 37.7% lead. After that, North Carolina and Indiana vote on May 6th; both of those states give Obama substantial leads (7.3% in NC and 15% in IN).

The mood must be tense in the Clinton camp right now, as plans to hold new primaries in Florida and Michigan–whose delegations were removed after they moved their primaries ahead of 2/5, in violation of DNC rules–have fallen apart.

First Florida:

After weeks of negotiations, the Florida Democratic Party said Monday it will not hold a second primary in the state.

[...]

“We researched every potential alternative process — from caucuses to county conventions to mail-in elections — but no plan could come anywhere close to being viable in Florida,” said state party chairwoman Karen Thurman in an e-mail sent to Florida Democrats late Monday afternoon.

And then Michigan:

The subscription-only MIRS service issued a release just before noon today that Senate Democrats “emerged from a closed-door caucus this morning and proclaimed that a fledging idea floated by top Michigan Democrats to create a special June 3 primary election is all but dead.”

The Clinton camp had hoped to use late contests in FL and MI to both close some ground with Sen. Obama and to generate good press going into the Democratic National Convention; with those re-vote plans tabled, the Clinton campaign will face an even steeper uphill climb to the Democratic nomination.

Another blow to Clinton occurred just few days ago, when Obama put to rest the controversy over Rev. Jeremiah Wright by giving what is already being called a speech for the history books; Obama wrote it over the span of two days, and he shared it with only a handful of advisers before it was delivered.

And now the National Archives have released Sen. Clinton’s record as First Lady, which are already being poured over by the media–unfortunately for her, the records are already dredging up memories of the Clinton scandals of the 90’s.

Political Insider has more:

An early example from ABC News: “Hillary Clinton spent the night in the White House on the day her husband had oral sex with Monica Lewinsky, and may have actually been there when it happened, according to records of her schedule released today by the National Archives.”

Another example: “In December, 2000, when both of Hillary Clinton’s brothers were involved in trying to broker pardon arrangements for associates, several days of documents show only a long list of ‘private meetings’ at the White House.”

The other big danger is that the schedules will shed some light on some of Clinton’s claims of “35 years of experience,” such as this headline from The Guardian: “Clinton a long way from the White House at key foreign policy moments.”

Or this from the AP: “She was also involved in helping her husband win congressional approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement, a deal she now criticizes and says she would try to change.”

In the coming days, expect the conflict over Rev. Wright to fade away and the controversy over Clinton’s White House records to ramp up.


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