Remember last February when Obama won the Virgin Islands primary by damn near 100% and then took Nebraska and Louisiana and Washington and Maine (that other lady was supposed to win Maine; remember her?), dominated the Potomac Primaries, killed it in Hawaii and made Wisconsin the cherry on top? There was a lot of bullshitting about superdelegates and big states, but a still, small voice began to tell me he was winning.
It was wonderful. It was terrifying. Because that was when my hopes really started to get themselves up. That was when my horserace-news addiction became crippling.
And here we are again. He's plainly ahead and they're running out of field. As then, the terror abides--because deargod, if he loses now. (It will be my fault, first of all, for the useless plogging and cable news consumption, time stolen from hypothetical activist campaign pursuits.)
But I'm only emphasizing the fears because of yet another fear: that I'll look like a jackass later if he loses. Of course, Obama knows better than anyone the dangerous dance of hope and fear. And now I sound like a jackass already, so what do I have to fear.
February was when the Obama campaign strategists started to look like geniuses and Hillary Clinton's campaign was caught with its thumb up its ass. And now? Remember all the chortling a month ago about how the "new map" is the same as the old map and the fifty state strategy is naive and he might as well pull out of North Carolina too? Haven't heard that in a few. He is inching ahead in the Stamey's Barbecue State. That irritating buzzing noise from everyone giving Obama stupid advice has gotten a lot quieter.
The accepted narrative is that it's all about the economic shitstorm, but I don't fully buy it. Obama's greater personal appeal, his calm presidential demeanor, his not being a Republican at a time when we're cowering in a collective national fetal position after eight years of Republican funtimes had to matter eventually. Not to mention his campaign's superior ground tactics. Or their superior (which is to say existent) overall strategy. And hell yeah he knows the difference.
2 comments :
Thank you for referring to North Carolina as the Stamey's Barbecue State.
North Carolina in my mind is like one of those distorted maps, with Greensboro taking up most of the state and Stamey's taking up most of Greensboro.
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