Okay, Lake County threw me by reporting basically all of Obama’s precincts first. The results are in and Clinton still has a 22,000 margin. My mistake and apologies for jumping the gun. There are a lot of absentee and provisional ballots to count and I do expect this margin to narrow, but not by 22,000 votes. I will say that I called this race yesterday and today, before the polls closed, at 51-49 for Clinton. I also called North Carolina as 56-43 for Obama. So, I got that right. Who else did?
It looks as if this result was good enough to decide the campaign. Clinton has canceled her television appearances for tomorrow and she sent out an email that didn’t bother to ask for more money. Many pundits are talking about the race in the past tense, and, obviously, the math just got more impossible.
The immediate problem is that the West Virginia primary is only six days away and Clinton is poised to win it in a blowout. That would not be helpful in bringing closure to this campaign. So, Clinton really needs to make a decision about whether she is going to concede or fight on. If she fights on I have a feeling that the tolerance for negative campaigning in going to be about nil among all but her most diehard supporters. She needs to find a good time to bow out, and now is much better than after killing Obama in a meaningless primary.
I know I am ready to call off the dogs and stop criticizing Clinton and her campaign if she will do the same in return. This campaign has been rough and it will take some healing to bring everyone back together. I hope we can start that process soon.
