Despite the hyperbole of TV political pundits, Hillary Clinton’s victory in the Granite state primary did not "shock the political world," or was "a Titanic upset of politics in the history of primaries or the history of politics."
Let’s look at some salient facts:
· Sixty percent of NH voters voted for one of the change candidates
· Clinton seems unable to attract independents—a death knell in a General Election campaign
· Exit polls showed Clinton may have a problem attracting male voters
· The "Bradley" or Black phenomenon and how it affects the public response to pollsters may be at work here.
Remember former Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford’s defeat in 2006, opinion polls just prior to the election showed Ford would be the winner. What he won was the chairmanship of the DLC.
Is the Democratic Party going to stick with the old special interest group politics that slice and dice the American people: see, http://www.democrats.org/... Voters in state primaries where the ability to vote is based on party affiliation, (for example NY and Conn.),will tell the tale.
Should we assume that a plurality of Democratic voters support the status quo because they fear change will affect social security, Medicare, and certain middle class tax loopholes?
I never thought that I would agree with a Pat Buchanan analysis. The conservative commentator opined that a spit may be brewing within the Democratic Party between the educated, African Americans and Hispanics—a redux of the McGovern coalition. I witnessed how McGovernites were treated by the then Democratic establishment, if Senator Obama’s analysis is correct and it is possible for a New Majority to be forged in America; it is extremely possible that the special interest dominated Democratic Party is not the vehicle for real, bold, dynamic change.
As the Granite state primary results demonstrate regardless of Senator Clinton’s plurality, the people out of doors much like the McGovernites of a generation ago seek a radical change in the status quo. How can a party funded by those who cling to the status quo and entrenched special interest groups with an axe to grind be the catalysis of this radical transformation?
By the way, the most important primary in modern political history remains the 1968 face-off between an obscure Minnesota Senator, Eugene McCarthy, and President Lyndon Johnson that result--McCarthy garnering 38 percent of the vote convinced LBJ the political savvy warhorse not to seek reelection.