Saturday, May 10, 2008

The Conventional Wisdom is Wrong

Conventional Wisdom #1 - Hillary's done with the campaign.

She can't win, mind you, but she's not done yet. She loaned herself another $6.4 million before Indiana and North Carolina. She'll likely be loaning herself more money this month before Kentucky, West Virginia, and Oregon. By staying in she can pay back the Indiana/North Carolina loans, and after the other three on May 20th she'll have won two more of them. This will allow herself to raise enough so that she can be paid back for this month's loans to herself.

It's all about her financially breaking even now.  It's not about the presidential election anymore because she can't realistically do that. Even if she were to subvert the process or overtly take advantage of what would have to be an egregious error by Obama, it would so fracture the Democratic Party as to make her unelectable.

Obama's in. He just has to be patient for a few more weeks.

Conventional Wisdom #2 - Obama and McCain differ on Hamas.

While Cindy McCain was saying Thursday morning that John McCain would not run an attacking campaign, John McCain was running an attacking campaign against Barack Obama by linking Obama to the Palestinian terrorist group.

McCain hypocrisy aside,  the fact is that Obama and McCain have exactly the same stance on the now duly elected entity of the Palestinan government. Obama has stated he will not speak to them unless they:
1 - denounce violence,
2 - recognize Israel's right to exist, and
3 - live up to their previously agreed to accords.

The candidates have no differences when it comes to Israel.

Conventional Wisdom #3 - Obama gets the most-favored press.

At a recent Associated Press gathering, reporters on the McCain beat proclaimed themselves to be traveling on McCain's "Straight -Talk Express" while presenting him with his favorite chocolate sprinkle covered doughnuts. At the same gathering, Barack Obama was addressed as Barack Osama.

I think Obama will still be waiting in November to be presented with his favorite doughnuts by the press.