Even though he still has a long way to go to clinch the nomination, Barack Obama’s stunning (38% to 29%) upset of Hillary Clinton in the first contest of this year’s race to become the next president of the United States is really big (and good) news.
And nothing demonstrates this fact quite like the way the Clintons immediately retreated from assuming her inevitable coronation (i.e. entitlement) in this respect to spinning stories about how winning Iowa was never key to their grand strategy; which, of course, is a bold-faced lie.
But the significance of Obama beating Hillary in the whitest state in the union cannot be exaggerated. (In fact, Iowa is 95% white.) And this bodes well for him, and for those of us who support his audacious candidacy. Nevertheless, it’s far too premature to count Hillary out. After all, Bill will be the first to tell you that he did not even compete in Iowa. (Although, it had to add insult to Hillary’s injured pride that even the-also-ran John Edwards beat her….)
So let’s hold off on the celebrations for now. More importantly, let us pray that as he begins to look more and more like the truly inevitable Democratic nominee (and the next president of the United States) that his Secret Service bodyguards redouble their efforts to protect him. Because the last thing America needs right now is another assassination that triggers all of the lost hope and incendiary rage of the killing of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy…combined!
Alas, there’s nothing Obama’s bodyguards can do to protect him from the character assassination the Clintons are no doubt planning to execute against him. But I am confident not only that he can withstand their negative attacks but also that the American people will resent and reject the Clintons even more for launching them.
Incidentally, I wonder how long it’ll be before the Clintons’ old race cards (namely, ace of spades Jesse Jackson and ace of clubs Al Sharpton) jump from the deck of their sinking ship to finagle a seat on the Obama bandwagon…?
Meanwhile, on the Republican side, Mike Huckabee defeated Mitt Romney 34% to 25% in an equally stunning upset; especially given that Romney spent tens of millions of his own money in a vain attempt to buy this race. But no matter who the Republican nominee turns out to be, he won’t even stand a snowball’s chance in hell of defeating the Democratic nominee in November.
Finally, I suspect most Americans listening to Obama’s victory speech last night felt that voting for him would make them proud in many ways; and not least by giving them the chance to make history by electing the first black president of the United states.
They said this day would never come . . . They said our sights were set too high . . . But on this January night, at this defining moment in history you have done what the cynics said we couldn’t do . . . Years from now you’ll look back and say this is the moment where it all began.[Barack Obama addressing his supporters in Iowa last night]
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