Bad American

Obama at his breakfast photo op in Greenwood, Indiana Tuesday. And yes, I HAVE been to Greenwood and actually ATE in that restaurant (the food’s pretty good). For more on what one diner patron thought of Obama, see the quote highlighted in blue below. But, according to the NY Times, one of the two guys sitting here said he’d vote for Obama. I don’t know which one that was.

I wish it was because I’m getting sick of the entire charade, but this Democratic nomination fight is not over.

Not by a longshot.

Of course, the pundits are all saying it’s over this morning - that Obama’s North Carolina landslide and squeaker loss in Indiana seals the deal for the charismatic Senator from Illinois. The Huffington Post and the Drudge Report come together in agreement on this issue.

So. How long have some of you been watching the Clintons anyway?

And you really think she’s going to quit?

She’s lending her campaign more millions and her aides are presenting an obstinate face to the TV media this morning.

And check this out:

With few states left, she and her aides said they would step up their efforts to count the disputed results in Florida and Michigan, where the states held contests in defiance of Democratic Party rules. If Mrs. Clinton can win the battle to have the delegations from those two states seated at the conventions on the basis of the vote there, she could greatly reduce Mr. Obama’s lead in pledged delegates.

But neither candidate actively campaigned in Florida or Michigan, and Mr. Obama did not appear on the Michigan ballot.

Still, in a sign of where the Clinton campaign is going, her aides are asserting that the winner will need 2,209 delegates, not 2,025. That higher number reflects the full inclusion of Florida and Michigan, which held their primaries before the date permitted by the Democratic Party.

Maureen Dowd:

Fox News reports that the Clintons are planning a summer campaign with TV appearances, fliers and rallies, between the end of the primary and the convention, to drag back superdelegates trying to flock to Obama. The Democratic race has been a scorpion and a butterfly in a bottle. Hillary tore Barry’s wings off, and so psyched him out with her silly goading — “Enough about the speeches and the big rallies!” she cried — that he gave up his magical trump cards.

But that’s not all: there’s still one very big race card left for the Clintons to play (overtly now) to the superdelegates: that Barack Obama cannot win white America in a general election against John McCain.

And they’ll use this kind of anecdotal evidence (plus the polling data that will back it up) from the Dowd column:

Wandering around Indiana, appearing in neighborhoods and at diners without any advance notice, talking to handfuls of people, Obama strived to seem less lofty and more mortal. Hounded by Hillary, Bill and Rev. Wright, he just looked sort of numb. When Obama went to an 11:30 p.m. shift change at an auto components plant here, a Newsday reporter on the scene noted that many of the white men “were less likely to smile or look him in the eye or seem impressed with him.”

In a restaurant in Greenwood on Tuesday, Obama approached an older white guy who waved him off, muttering afterwards to a reporter: “I can’t stand him. He’s a Muslim. He’s not even pro-American as far as I’m concerned.”

Which is why Obama, as a nominee is probably a dead duck not only in Indiana, but the entire South, all the Confederate border states and even some eastern states like Pennsylvania.

Check the map

I’ll stand by what I said to a customer in the book store I worked at in Iowa way back in February of 2007: sorry, America is not ready to elect a black president.

Of course if Hillary conceded and threw her wholehearted support behind Obama, he’d have more than a fighting chance: he’d literally be a shoo-in with most of her white blue collar votes following him.

But since her whole reason for drawing breath to live is to be President of the United States, if she can’t have it, neither will he. And she’ll be back in 2012. Count on it.

Not that the country is ready for Hillary either, but that’s another story entirely. She does have a better chance in the electoral college by far, but if she wrestles the nomination from Obama, blacks and disaffected young people stay home and she’s a dead duck too.

At this point all John McCain really has to do is wrap his crinkly white skin in the American flag and bide his time. You can see the train wreck coming from here.

Now if Clinton concedes in the next week or so, I’ll gladly admit I’m wrong. But I doubt I’ll have to.

Hillary Clinton will do ANYTHING she has to to win or she will destroy Obama in the process. Bottom line.