Here's the problem, as I see it, for Dems. There is NO doubt that the MSM hates Clinton and will do anything it can to destroy her. They were dancing on her grave after Iowa and before last night. They will continue to do this if she's the nominee, giving her no credit for winning a tough nomination contest but instead seeing her as the evil harridan who would dare to deprive a valiant war-hero maverick of his destiny. If Obama is the nominee, they won't have that narrative to tout and so won't be able quite as easily to tilt the media playing field. So this might suggest that, if you are willing eventually to vote for either candidate, you should just vote for Obama now to clear the path to the nomination and deprive the MSM of their anti-Clinton spin.

But.

Every time that Obama (as he did today) pushes precisely this story--I'm more electable, people hate Hillary, the Clintons are divisive, my voters may not vote for her--I have to admit come to despise him just a little bit more. He's using the Republican and media slime machine for his own ends. It's corrupt--and, worse, it's unfair. He's *legitimating* the MSM's tilting of the playing field.

Just as I supported Bill Clinton when he was being routinely brutalized by rightwing thugs in the 90s, I feel a reflexive twinge of support for Hillary when anyone (including Obama) starts pushing this media-driven anti-Clinton bias. It's as if he's saying Dems should not be proud of their first two-term presidency in the postwar period and should *agree with* the Clinton-haters--as if he's lining up with Ken Starr, and Dan Burton, and suchlike scum. Or, more likely, as if he's cynically exploiting their strategy throughout the 90s to advance himself now. It's disgusting.

Maybe what he ought to think of doing is coming up with ways to appeal to the blocs of Dem voters Clinton is holding (older voters, white women, Latinos, working-class voters) by selling his own policies instead of trying to tear Clinton down.

Does he have one? He's not convincing them--or working-class whites and older voters either--to vote for him. Just bashing Clinton or shouting "change! hope!" into their faces doesn't seem to be doing the trick.

Huh? I hope there are some strategists in the Obama campaign that have a sharper and clearer grasp of the situation than you do!

So Latinos and Asian-Americans in California are uneducated and reactionary?

than reading some of the comments on this thread. Latinos and Asian-Americans are stupid, reactionary, conservative white supremacists. All hail Obama, the glorious uniter!

in the feverish monomania of the Obama supporters, not just in the MSM but on blogs like Dailykos, which has essentially become an ongoing pep rally for their guy. It's a cult, basically. If you disagree, raise any questions at all about their demigod, they swarm you, demonize you, chant in your face. I do think it is turning thoughtful adults off.

Also, Obama's Reaganesque attachment to stylistic spectacle over substance (like that grotesquely fulsome Kennedy endorsement event) may be backfiring on him with core Democratic constituencies who don't buy his messiah narrative. He got crushed among working-class voters in Massachusetts, who apparently want more than happy words and rah-rah shows.

There IS a reason he is losing blue-collar voters, Latinos, and older voters. But to listen to the Obama fans, the only possible explanations are are that they're racists or they're old and cynical. His fans' persistent attempts (which Obama himself today endorsed) to basically blackmail Dems into supporting him by implying that his glorious coalition will abandon the party in November if he's not the nominee, is only making things worse.

Great essay! Unfortunately, Obama IS Jesus--and Buddha, RFK, St. Francis, and Simba the Lion King. I thought you got the memo....

Isn't this a reason you buy a floor cleaner?

hit all the wrong notes if he wants to start appealing to the core Dem constituencies that Hillary has so far sewn up, at least judging by yesterday's exit polls.

First, it was incredibly presumptuous for him to say, look, make me the nominee or my glorious crossover coalition is going to scatter to the four winds, Hillary could never hold them together--but, of course, I could hold all of her voters, no problem. If I'm a Latino in Austin waiting to vote in the Texas primary, my response to this electoral blackmail would be: screw you, Obama, you've never made any compelling appeal for my vote in the first place, how dare you take it for granted now, I'd just as soon vote for McCain or sit this one out instead.

Second, it's tactically dumb to keep bashing Bill Clinton, blaming him for the divisiveness and electoral defeats of the 90s and after, even if all that's true. Because if I'm a blue-collar voter in Akron waiting to vote in the Ohio primary, my response to this Clinton-bashing would be: screw you, Obama, my family had it good in the 90s, now we're suffering, but what sort of steward of the economy would you be, tell me that, at least with Hillary I know what I'm getting.

In other words, Obama lost a great chance to reach out today to Latino and working-class voters--and white women and older voters, all of whom Hillary is holding by double digits. At this point, he doesn't have to make one more speech or media statement designed to win the vote of a single latte liberal, or African-America, or college kid with stars in their eyes. Those groups will follow him till doomsday, and he's just preaching to the converted. He needs to tell those key Dem groups he's losing why they'd be better off with him than with Hillary, or he's going to get beat in Texas and Ohio (and Pennsylvania and Indiana too).