Astonishing. Just when we were beginning to think Obamamania was over and Hillary was pulling ahead - this happens. The Illinois senator didn't just win South Carolina. He stormed it, with over 50% of the votes. Much will be made, no doubt, of the fact that there are many black voters in this state, but I think that misses the point. The point about Obama is that he has a magic ability to reach above and across race, and make talk about his being a "black candidate" seem passé.
It's not over yet. Hillary is a resilient candidate who's shown she can come back like the best of them. And as I've said before, at some point John Edwards's support will need to look for a new home, and given his appeal to bread-and-butter economics and blue-collar and union sentiment, my feeling is that it will break for Hillary, who's positioned herself shrewdly as a second preference for those concerned about that agenda.
But. As the Kennedys' support reinforces the idea that Obama is a new JFK, you have to wonder whether the Obama wave may simply be irresistible. With irresistible logic, too, since if I were a committed Democrat I'd have twigged by now that John McCain probably fears the Obama effect more than he does Mrs. Clinton.
This is tremendous fun.
Photograph: Daniella Zalcman under a Creative Commons license.
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