Reflections From a Murky Pond

Sen. Barack Obama has claimed victory in the race to be the Democratic Presidential Nominee, but has he truly crossed the finish line or is he merely claiming victory in the hope that doing so will cause it to be? The truth of how the Democrats’ nomination process works and the math involved side against Obama having secured being the the Presumptive Nominee.

As of Wednesday, June 4, 2008, Sen. Barack Obama has won 1,763 Pledged Delegates of the 2,118 total delegates he needs to secure the nomination. An additional 395 Superdelegates have indicated their endorsement of the Senator. This would seem to bring Obama’s total to 2,158 delegates – comfortably above the required 2,118 needed to be the Presumptive Nominee. So far, so good for Obama and his supporters.

Sadly for Obama and his supporters the Superdelegates don’t really count at this point. Their endorsement of Obama cannot end the race because their endorsement will not coalesce into votes until the Convention. With Hillary’s refusal to concede and suspend her campaign, this race will be going to the Convention.

Is Obama’s victory cry the truth or just the audacity of hope?

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Remember how Bill Clinton described Texas as a Do or Die race for his wife’s campaign. He specifically pointed out to the crowd that winning in both Texas and Ohio were prerequisites for Hillary gaining the Democratic nomination.

If she wins Texas and Ohio I think she will be the nominee. If you don’t deliver for her, I don’t think she can be. It’s all on you.

– Former US president Bill Clinton
February 20th, 2008, Beaumont, TX

Well, after a long delay, the final results from Texas are at last counted and recorded. Obama won Texas. Hillary lost! Though Clinton won more delegates than Obama in the Texas Primaries – 65 to 61, Obama won more delegates in the Texas Caucuses – 38 to 29.

Final Texas Totals:

• Barack Obama won 99 Texas delegates
• Hillary Clinton won 94 Texas delegates

One has to wonder what Hillary will do now – besides taking Bill to task for making such an ill-advised statement in Beaumont, TX. A lot of publicity surrounded Bill’s Do or Die claim, and it looked at first like Hillary had pulled it off – albeit by the slimmest of margins. Now that it has been shown that she did in fact lose Texas, one can be assured that there will be an even greater media storm over her husband’s comment.

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Geraldine Ferraro, former Congresswoman, former Vice Presidential candidate, and former US ambassador to the UN Committee on Human Rights is a well known feminist. She’s also a somewhat less well known racist.

Given the media coverage of Ferraro’s recent racist gaffe, I assume most of the Free World is familiar with her comment:

If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position, and if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is.

— Geraldine Ferraro
March, 2008

Taken strictly as a standalone comment, this might be taken as simply a poorly worded statement from a feminist who has difficulties in looking beyond gender issues, or the rantings of a Hillary Clinton supporter who isn’t dealing well with the sudden lack of Clinton’s “inevitability.” Sadly, this would be a mistake; Geraldine Ferraro’s racism has roots that are decades old.

Because of his “radical” views, if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn’t be in the race.

— Geraldine Ferraro
April, 1988

Doesn’t the second statement by Ferraro sound eerily familiar? It seems that for at least 20 years Geraldine Ferraro has held and staunchly espoused the theory that Black politicians and political candidates are only viable because they are Black, not because of any skills they might have or their stance on the issues of the day.

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