There are three contests left in the Primary Calendar and the one looming largest above them all is Puerto Rico.  There is very little doubt in my mind that Obama will win Montana and South Dakota handily but I just don’t see the margins he gains in popular votes there to be enough to erase Michigan and Florida.  Now argue all you want "He wasn’t on the ballot", "they broke the rules", "it’s moving the goal posts", the list goes on and on.  Hillary’s supporters will cling to these arguments and they give them the reason they need to not support Obama (no show in November, or even cross over for McCain) and vote against their own interests out of petty spite.  Now I’m not even going to guess what will come out of May 31st but lets for sake of argument say they seat all the Delegates as is.  Obama still wins by the current rules.  Ok now what we have our nominee but out there is Hillary Clinton and all her supporters and they have leverage over Obama, the kind of leverage that can get someone a VP slot or a meaningful cabinet position or god knows what.  This is how I see us putting an end to that.

I do not by any means claim to be perfect.  In the category of Really Terrible Housekeeper, I am world-class.  Overweight, lousy sleeping habits, smoker, drawing ability limited to stick figures, and most 3-year-olds could navigate the world solo without getting lost as often as I do.

But there is at least one thing that I am really quite good at.  Extraordinarily good, in fact.  And that thing is . . . logic.   Scored in the 99.9% percentile on the LSAT, back in the day when it was much closer to being a test of pure logic than it is today. Nowadays I'm a math teacher, another career venture in which logic comes in handy.

I think it's time to apply some logic to a very annoying phrase I keep hearing.

http://www.dailykos.com/...

Two important primaries are happening next week and we continue to fritter away valuable time decrying or defending some guy, Jeremiah Wright, who is not running for president - and other opposition and MSM distractions. Doing so continues to create drag for the key messages of the Obama campaign, presents a clear and present danger for the upcoming primaries, and actually perpetuates and extends the news cycles devoted to trivia. It's time to carry water for the campaign and re-affirm its central rationale. The MSM and the opposition can continue to yap about whatever they want. The point for them is distraction. Clinton and the Republicans are loving this. But it's time for Obama supporters to assert and reassert why Obama should be the next president of the United States of America.

Why can't Obama "seal the deal"? That's what all the pundits (including Cafferty here) are asking. Because.... (wait for it)...the two strongest candidates in this presidential cycle are Democrats. Arguably, when the race included more candidates, the THREE strongest  candidates were Democrats (I'm thinking here of John Edwards).

Hillary is a very tough candidate. She has scads of name recognition, a strong base within core constiuencies of the Democratic party--including women, who have been waiting for a credible presidential candidate for a long time. (My wife and several co-workers fall into this category, and, much as I am rooting for Obama, I have to sympathize). Moreover, relative to Republicans like McCain, Sen Clinton has mounted a strong fundraising effort. She is very articulate, tenacious and combative, and she also has an experienced team of campaigners behind her even if they don't seem to quite understand the merits of the 50 state strategy. She would have won in a walk against any other Democrat.

Since the Pennsylvania primary finished up the night before last there has been a dizzying tornado of spin from pundits about Obama's continuing, "problem," of not being able to break into Hillary's constituency. The loudest of these cries came from Republican pundits, like Pat Buchanan or Joe Scarborough,  incessantly crowing that Obama losing Pennsylvania is somehow indicative of greater problems within his campaign and will surely doom, DOOM him in the fall. This same sentiment is echoed so frequently by the Clinton campaign and its surrogates one would assume it to be a HRC4Prez-approved talking point. Before I get to exactly what about this phrase nearly induces an aneurysm in my brain every time I hear it, I want to take a second to examine Pennsylvania and Hillary's win.