That Settles It

So, Hillary Clinton won yesterday's Pennsylvania primary, beating Obama by about 10 points. Did that clear things up for you? Did it settle things?

Hardly.

You've now got more folks than ever demanding that Hillary get out of the Obama steamroller (which is anything but). In fact, the New York Times makes it a point of her getting out of the way on the eve of yet another resounding victory over Obama in a big key state. Is the media so totally in the tank for Obama that they're all but getting out there and kicking Hillary to the curb themselves despite the facts and evidence showing that she's got the right to stick around through the convention?

Obama hasn't won a single big state outside of his own home state of Illinois. Hillary has won all the other big states - from California to New Jersey and New York. Yet, she's still behind in the popular vote and the overall number of delegates based on how Democrats apportion the delegates. One can make an argument that if the Democrats didn't apportion their delegates, this would be over already - with Hillary winning. Then again, things might be somewhat different if Florida and Michigan were counted, but as things stand right now, they would hardly make a difference. That's how close this race is.

This is going to continue all the way to the Democrats convention in Denver.

North Carolina isn't going to change anything either.

Hillary's people are committed to securing the nomination, and they're making a decent case of it - they win the states that any candidate must win in the general election, which is something Obama can't say.

For his part, Obama and his supporters are going to get mighty cranky if they're left at the altar and Hillary somehow manages to finagle the nomination. Many may sit on the sidelines and watch the Democrats lose to McCain rather than vote for Hillary because they will rightly believe that Obama's chance at the Presidency was stolen by back room dealings and that the popular vote supports an Obama candidacy.

Yet, if you scratch the surface, the fact is that both Hillary and Obama are seriously flawed candidates. While Obama somehow manages to inspire people with the incessant mantra of hope and change, some are starting to wake up to the fact that he's surrounded himself with a whole assortment of unsavory characters from his days as a local Illinois politician. Whether it's his racist pastor, Jeremiah Wright, or Tony Rezko, that is sufficient to raise eyebrows. However, his close ties to Bill Ayers should be sending up serious red flags. This was not merely some casual acquaintance.

Ayers is an unashamed and unreformed terrorist who sought to overthrow the US government and whose terrorist group, the Weather Underground carried out a series of bombings before being caught. Obama not only had a fundraiser hosted by Ayers, but both serve on a board together. Obama sought out Ayers and his terrorist wife Bernadine Dohrn and maintained ties to both through at least 2002.

Hillary's campaign has begun pointing out these ties, and all the inconsistencies in Obama's statements, not to mention his lack of experience. All of those things are true - uncomfortable facts to be sure, but true nonetheless.

Of course, the same can be said of Hillary - the FALN pardons, lies, misrepresentations, and lack of experience. The problem is that Obama can't throw those back in Hillary's face without exposing the very same problem that has seen him lose his momentum at a time when he wants to get past them. Yet, he's going to have to do just that if he wants to stay toe to toe with Clinton going into the final batch of states.