ON THE COUCH AGAIN….I have no idea what the right narrative is for yesterday’s Democratic primary. I can only say what’s inside my own head, rational or irrational as it might be. And although Obama obviously made up a huge amount of ground over the past two weeks, what it felt like to me was disappointment. He seemed to be coming on so strong that it seemed inevitable he’d win one or two of the big Hillary states — or at least make them into close races — but he didn’t. In the end, Hillary won California, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts by double digit margins. It really seemed to take a lot of wind out of the Obama surge.
The other thing inside my head that I didn’t expect was that as the results came in, I found myself sort of rooting for Hillary. Why? Buyer’s remorse? Rooting for the underdog? Guilt for having “betrayed” her by voting for Obama? A feeling that although I preferred Obama, I really didn’t want to see Hillary humiliated? I think the last one is it, though I really don’t know. The human mind is a devious little lump of protoplasm, isn’t it?
UPDATE: Armando also thinks that last night ended Obama’s momentum and pushed the race in Hillary’s direction. I’m not sure I agree with everything he says, but I suspect he’s in the right ballpark.
UPDATE 2: Harold Meyerson summarizes the basic state of play going forward here. Nickel version: the next few weeks (Louisiana, Nebraska, Maine, Washington, Maryland, Virginia, D.C., Hawaii, Wisconsin) look generally promising for Obama, but the big states that come after that (Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina, Kentucky) look a lot friendlier to Hillary. “Or, as my friend Ron Brownstein might put it, February is a wine track month, but March, April and May look good for beer track candidates.”
On the other hand, Obama has more money than Clinton. For now, anyway. That might make a difference.
