What must Obama do next?
Harold Ford Jr. -- not so long ago the rising black politician within Democratic ranks -- now heads an arm of the party that seeks to keep its focus on "middle" America and crafting centrist messages: the Democratic Leadership Council. Often vilified by liberal activists, the DLC sees itself as quintessentially practical.
From that perspective, and in the wake of Hillary Clinton's win in the Pennsylvania primary, Ford just set a political bar for the black politician that surpassed him in prominence.
"You have to win Indiana," Ford told Barack Obama (via an interview on MSNBC). And, Ford added, Obama has to "steamroll" Clinton in the other state with a primary two Tuesdays from now, North Carolina.
The Obama camp will not publicly embrace that equation. But for him to truly regain the momentum he captured during his February surge, most party pros will see Ford's formulation as spot-on.
-- Don Frederick
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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Why are they saying that Hillary won when they haven't counted all of the votes? I hate when they do that! She hasn't won yet!
Posted by: Tammy | April 22, 2008 at 07:00 PM
Wouldn't Hillary have had to win by a huge margin not only in Pennsylvania, but the 9 remaining states and territories?
So if that is the case, Hillary's margin of victory in Pennsylvania does not do much damage.
Her master-plan to woo-in the superdelegates and the penalized delegates of Florida and Michigan, will paint the worse scenario for the senator.
Honestly, I think she's in a "lose-lose" situation. I don't think the "whole" picture matters to her.
Posted by: robinia | April 22, 2008 at 07:03 PM
Barack Obama remains the strongest candidate to face John McCain. Here’s a good summary of some reasons to consider supporting Obama: http://acropolisreview.com/2008/04/top-reasons-to-give-barack-obama-your.html
Share the summary with friends in North Carolina and Indiana.
Posted by: Tina | April 22, 2008 at 07:06 PM