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Nov. 17, 2009
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JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Feb. 27, 2008 / 21 Adar I 5768

Waiting for Hillary

By Jack Kelly

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Syndicated columnist Robert Novak and Newsweek's Jonathan Alter have written columns this week urging Sen. Hillary Clinton to drop out of the Democratic race for president now, before the primaries March 4 in Ohio and Texas.


This is ridiculous. If Sen. Clinton loses in Ohio or Texas (and especially if she loses in both) "Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin" not only will be scribbled on the wall of her campaign headquarters, it'll be flashing in neon lights from the Goodyear blimp.


March 4 is next Tuesday. We can wait until then to see what the Moving Finger writes. Hillary Clinton certainly will.


Mr. Novak and Mr. Alter argue Sen. Clinton should drop out now because even if she wins all the delegates in the remaining primaries and caucuses, she won't have enough to win the nomination.


That's true. But thanks to the Democrats' idiot rules, Sen. Obama would have to win 75 percent of the remaining delegates to claim the nomination outright, something he can't possibly do, if Sen. Clinton wins, however narrowly, in Ohio and Texas. Elections are the best way to determine who should hold political power. But for elections to have meaning, winners have to win, and losers lose. The principal reason why Democrats face the (for them) nightmarish prospect of a brokered convention in Denver is because they have mandated proportional representation in all their primaries and caucuses. So winners win only a little, and losers don't lose much.


The other reason why there could be a deadlock in Denver is the Democratic fondness for "super delegates." The Democrats have, I think wisely, made all Democratic senators, governors and congressman automatically delegates. Who better would know the strengths and weaknesses of Democratic presidential candidates than these people, all of whom were elected to their offices?


But there is no sound principle Democrats can't screw up, and they screwed up the superdelegate concept by extending it to the chairs of the left-handed lesbian caucus and the transgendered dwarf caucus and every other special interest group you could think of. The result is the Democrats have 796 super delegates whose votes are not bound by the results of the primary or caucus in their state. Barring a total meltdown by Sen. Clinton, it's the super delegates who'll determine who the Democratic nominee will be.


This has caused angst among supporters of Sen. Obama. The super delegates, they say, have a moral obligation to vote the way their states did. This could produce hilarious results. Sens. Ted Kennedy and John Kerry of Massachussetts have been Sen. Obama's biggest name supporters in Congress. Are they obliged to vote for Mrs. Clinton because she won the Massachussetts primary?


Supporters of Sen. Obama understandably would be angry if he loses the nomination despite having won more delegates in the primaries and caucuses. But if Hillary wins in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, she has a good case to make.


Sen. Obama has a lead in delegates chiefly because he racked up huge wins in caucuses in red states. For instance, he won Idaho, 82-17, and Kansas, 74-23. The lopsided margins were mostly because of the mind-boggling failure of the Clinton campaign to organize in the caucus states. But no Democrat who stopped smoking dope more than 30 seconds ago thinks Sen. Obama could carry Idaho or Kansas in a general election.


Sen. Clinton has won primaries in New York, New Jersey, California, Massachussetts, and by her reckoning, Florida and Michigan. If she wins Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania, she can claim to have won the big states a Democrat must carry to win in November.


A counter argument is that Sen. Obama is the more electable. Current polls show him leading presumptive GOP nominee John McCain by 3-4 points, with Hillary trailing Sen. McCain by about the same margin.


But current polls are deceptive, Hillary's camp argues. Sen. Clinton is well known. All the people who dislike her already dislike her, so she's got nowhere to go but up.


Sen. Obama, on the other hand, may be at the apogee of his popularity. He's soared to the heights on elegant but mostly empty rhetoric. Support for him is likely to decline when his resume and record get more scrutiny. If she wins in Ohio and Texas, Mrs. Clinton can reasonably argue to the super delegates the air is leaking from the Obama balloon. But that's only if she wins in Ohio and Texas. We can wait a week to find out.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. Comment by clicking here.

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