Hillary Clinton walks off the stage to Bruce Springsteen’s “Land of Hope and Dreams.” Interesting, though I suspect that the Boss is staying out of the primary race.
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This thing may never end. Hillary Clinton has been declared the winner in Ohio by MSNBC with Texas too close to call. By any gauge, she would have to be viewed as tonight’s winner.
But is it enough? One of the things that strikes me about this is that it is the kind of night that, had it happened a month ago, would have been used to reinforce Clinton’s inevitability factor, but now is viewed as a last gasp for her campaign.
Listening to Chris Matthews now — gasp — I am struck by his unexpected rationality, tied to a piece that he read by Ronald Brownstein in The National Journal, in noting that the so-called momentum of this race is really nothing more than a quirk of calendar. Matthews point is that Obama, for the most part, has won only those states that he was supposed to, while Clinton has won the states she was supposed to. Had the calendar shaken out differently with the same results in each state, we may have a different definition of momentum.
Brownstein’s analysis is both more expansive and more nuanced, focusing on trends and their impacts on the Democratic coalition. The growing involvement of blacks and younger voters has been of great benefit to Obama and to the party in general, with record turnouts across the country.
The big question is whether the race has split the party, whether two competing coalitions are now in place and whether Obama supporters will stay home should Clinton win the nomination or Clinton supporters — downscale white women and seniors — will migrate to McCain should Obama win.
I still think both Democrats have the advantage as we move forward, especially if the economy continues to be the major issue. And I think that Iraq still looms large.
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In a spring season filled with nothing but news of the walking wounded, a story like this is tremendously welcome:
Following up on a strong first start last week against the Tigers, Pelfrey had his sinker working. He scattered just two hits in three scoreless innings of a 3-2 Grapefruit League victory over the Braves.
Mike Pelfrey, the Mets’ first-round pick in 2005, has had some difficult times in a few short stints in the majors the last two seasons but remains the team’s top pitching prospect — one still regarded well enough to keep him from being sent to Minnesota in the Johan Santana trade.
Pelfrey is, in many ways, the future of the organization — provided he lives up to his earlier billing. And if he does, and both John Maine and Oliver Perez continue their improvements, the Mets will go from having a solid rotation with a couple of aging pieces to having a dynamic one that is young and hard-throwing and unlike what we’ve been used to in Queens for a while.
The mix of lefties and righties, complemented by the aging, but savvy Pedro Martinez and whatever Orlando Hernandez can still bring to the table, gives the Mets a deep rotation that could help save the bullpen — a major problem last year. The Mets need the starters to regularly go into the seventh inning to limit the innings of specialists like Pedro Feliciano and to set the rest of the bullpen roles.
Of course, Duaner Sanchez eventually reclaiming the eighth inning will have a huge impact, as will the status of Carlos Delgado, Moises Alou and Carlos Beltran.
But Pelfrey’s work so far is incredibly heartening.
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The thing that has struck me all along about the debate over the governor’s toll hike plan was the inevitability that the state’s needs — its broken infrastructure, shaky finances, etc. — would require some sacrifice on the part of taxpayers. Whether there would be a need to slash government programs, including popular or necessary ones, or raise taxes or other revenue, we were going to pay.
That’s why this announcement today by state Sen. Ray Lesniak should not come as a shock to anyone, though it will.
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Last run was Thursday — a series of other priorities (a meeting, installation of digital cable yesterday and new furnace today) has kept me off the road or treadmill. Alas.
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