Today is primary day and 3.5 million Flori

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Obama, Clinton, Edwards, McCain, Giuliani and the beginning of the end

Hey, was it something we said??? One minute folks are voting in the Florida primary, the next minute candidates are dropping out. Rudy Giuliani never seemed to have actually been running, at least for President. (As someone on CNN said, "He forgot to campaign!") John Edwards it seems to me has nothing to lose by staying in and yet he quit. They talk about "voter fatigue", but in this highly unusual campaign, voters seem to have more staying power than the candidates....

More observations of the moment by Ariel Alexovich "Blogtalk: Flordia Shuffles the Deck" on New York Times The Caucus, and below from Salit and Newman for Talk/Talk:


Salit: Peggy Noonan observed in the Wall Street Journal that she was initially concerned that Obama might be holding back from fully engaging the Clintons in a fight because he was worried that he might destroy the Democratic Party. But, she said, what's actually happening is that Bill Clinton is the one who's destroying the party, just as George Bush is destroying the Republican Party.
Newman: Obama's not holding back. The speech he gave last night in South Carolina was all about the Clintons. That's not holding back. If you're holding back, you're not giving that speech. Obama recognizes - and I think correctly - that that's the fight they have to have to be in the game. If you're going up against the establishment elements of your own party, you've got to go up against them full force. You can't hold back. I don't think he's going to unnecessarily provoke them. But, he's got to go up against them because that's who he's running against. He has to find the right tone: Hillary, I don't want to berate you. I know you're in line to become the first woman president. But, you represent a way of doing politics, which produces a set of decisions which come out of that way of doing politics, which is not where the American people are at. You're old. Your time has passed.... (Talk/Talk with Fred Newman and Jacqueline Salit, "No Holding Back")

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