It is possible that by 25 May the Clinton-Obama drama will be resolved and we will have a Democrat nominee for 2008. (I stress possible, depending partly on what happens next Tuesday.) If so, political junkies will not need to despair thanks to the cable network HBO which on that date will release Recount, a film starring Kevin Spacey, Dennis Leary, Tom Wilkinson and Laura Dern about another not so distant episode of high anxiety (and, for some, pure despair) in American presidential politics.
If I mention hanging chads, the Supreme Court and Florida, you will know which one I mean.
There was a collective sigh of relief among Democrats here in North Carolina and across the country after Obama finally stuck it to the showboating Reverend. There is now mounting evidence that he is close to winning the "invisible primary" of superdelegates provided he doesn't trip up again.
In the process Obama appears to have persuaded a majority of elected superdelegates on Capitol Hill to back him. Most are waiting for the primary season to end on 3 June before declaring however. But the writing seems to be on the wall for the Clinton campaign which is now preparing to fold its tent in mid June, it is whispered.
He has been so quiet we almost forgot he was still out there, but finally Michael Dukakis, the '88 Democratic nominee (hapless eventually, if you remember) has offered some thoughts on the tug of war that knows no end between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. If he doesn't actually spell out who should win the nomination, he does make pretty plain which of the two he thinks is most likely to.
His answer, dropped during an interview at his Brookline home (just outside Boston) to the New York Observer does not carry the initials HRC but rather BO. "All I can tell you is at this point it looks as if he is likely to be the nominee," he tells the newspaper. He adds that it will surely be all over for Hillary if the man from Illinois scores a double whammy in North Carolina and Indiana next week. (Polls tonight show them pretty much neck and neck in the latter and Obama holding a healthy-ish but narrowing advantage in North Carolina.)
Last week The Boss jumped on board the "celebrities for Obama" swift-boat, now Roger Waters is getting involved too. Last night as he played a closing set at the Coachella festival in California, he released a giant inflatable pig - the pig being a staple prop of Pink Floyd since it appeared on the cover of their 1977 album Animals - with "Obama" emblazoned on its underside...
So appalling was some of Hillary's behaviour in the Pennsylvania primary that the New York Times - which still endorses her - described her triumph as "The Low Road to Victory".
The six-week long campaign had plenty of in the gutter moments, not least Hillary's emasculation of Obama before Pennsylvania's angry white males. But there were some benefits to the campaign. One included bringing to national prominence Philadelphia's articulate and bright new mayor Michael Nutter. Black and hugely popular, Nutter remained as steadfast supporter of Hillary throughout the campaign, despite the fact that his city voted overwhelmingly for Obama.
There are killer sandwiches in Philadelphia, candidate killers that is. Remember John Kerry back in 2004 asking for Swiss cheese instead of the Philly favourite "cheez whiz" on his cheesesteak sandwich. He was mocked as an effete snob on the talk shows that Joe and Jill Sixpack listen to from one end of the country. (Kerry was right; by the way the "cheeze whizz" sandwiches are disgusting). But the story, along with the famous photograph of Kerry on a windsurfer did more to damage him than all the infamous Swift Boat attacks by the Republicans. Today there is another Philly sandwich war going on. This time it's between the Clinton and Obama camps at Di Bruno bros famous deli on Chestnut Street.
I'm in Philadelphia, scene of the Rocky, the 1976 film, where the small-time street fighter Rocky Balboa survives 15 rounds with the undefeated World heavyweight champion Apollo Creed. As they go to the polls in Pennsylvania in what seems like the 15th round of a bruising world title fight, everyone wants to know is whether Hillary has finally found Obama's glass jaw and is about to knock him out of the race. A split decision means big trouble for her, given the high expectations that she was going to win Pennsylvania by more than 10 percentage points.
Chick's Diner is a Scranton landmark and its full-on for Hillary. All chrome, red piping and bustling waitresses, Edward Hopper could have painted Nighthawks, his famous painting of customers sitting at the counter of an all night diner, here. This diner is always full by seven in the morning and it stays open 24 hours a day. It's the best listening post in town and on the eve of the primary all the talk in this greasy spoon is about Hillary's pending victory, at least in Scranton.
Lori, my platinum blonde waitress just cannot conceive of a president named Obama. "I just can't see it," she said, to a chorus of approval from the old timers at the counter. "And then when you realise his middle name is Hussein," she said, "No, I don't think so."
Scranton, Pennsylvania is ground zero for Hillary as she tries to keep her presidential hopes alive. Her supporters were out in force this morning, packing into a Scottish Rite Masonic Hall that is now a ballroom to hear her final pep talk. Obama's supporters were out in force the night before.
A huge jump in the number of Democratic voter registrations across Pennsylvania bodes well for Obama as he continues to eat into Hillary's lead. Its an expectations game now and if he deny's her a double digit victory he will have robbed her of the knockout margin she desperately needs to justofy staying in the primary battle. Expect to hear a chorus of calls for her to pull out if she does not achieve a crushing victory.
"I’m not predicting a win. I’m predicting it’s going to be close and that we are going to do a lot better than people expect," says Obama. Listen to the (audio).
The Pennsylvania race is incredibly tight with a poll released Sunday showing Clinton's leading Obama by 48 to 43 percentage points with eight percent still undecided. Could Obama pull it off against all the odds?
That's what his organisers secretly believe, although they are playing down expectations in the media. Over a slice of pizza at Lancaster train station where the candidate had just given a speech on his train trip across the state, one of his top Pennsylvania operatives, who prefers to remain anonymous, was confident of victory or a worst a narrow defeat. He described how team Obama had been operating "below the radar" in Hillary's heartland of central Pennsylvania for over six weeks and had "registered the *!@*# out of the place."
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