Editorials

Clinton versus McCain January 28, 2008 - No reporter cited

If you want to know who will be the presidential candidates in the fall, I predict it will be Democrat Hillary Clinton versus Republican John McCain.

The respective campaigns still have several weeks to run before the nominations are official, but Bill Clinton has successfully injected race into the match between his wife and Barak Obama, and this means the white majority will swing to Hillary in a big way.

It is a shame too, as Obama has injected some optimism and hope into the political discourse. Unfortunately, the Clintons as a team are hard-boiled, do-whatever-it-takes to win candidates. And they do know how to win.

Play the race card in South Carolina so you can whine later that the black vote beat us? Yep, they know how to do that. Parade out Bill Clinton and let him wag his finger at the press and accuse them of coddling the Obama campaign. No problemo.

Losing in the predominately black Democratic primary in South Carolina creates a white backlash, which will put wind in Hillary’s sails in other states. Leave it to tomorrow to make it up with the black voters, whom they will surely need in the fall, if they expect defeat the Republicans.

This means that the Clinton camp might look for a minority to share the ticket. It won’t be Obama. How about New Mexico Gov. and former presidential candidate Bill Richardson? He has Hispanic roots and is looking for a job.

In the Republican race, you can go ahead and count out Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee. And, while you are there, end it for Mitt Romney.

And speaking of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, one wonders why the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter can’t figure out what happened to his candidacy all of a sudden. They wrote Sunday they did not know why he lost in South Carolina so badly.

But we know, you and I, he ran out of money. As reported in this space a week ago, we predicted his campaign would end with a whimper and not a bang because his coffers were empty.

The best that Huckabee can hope for now is the number two man on the ticket, and that might fit with McCain. Presumably Huckabee can deliver the evangelical right, and McCain has had his problems in that area.

So, this puts the end to the speculation, and you can tell your friends you read it first in the Nashville News when it actually happens. Go ahead and turn off the tv and catch up on your fishing.

At the end of the day, it will be Hillary Clinton versus John McCain in the fall.

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