Is Hillary's Campaign In Major League Trouble?

Over the weekend, Clinton managed to lose no less than five contests to Barack Obama in Washington, Virgin Islands, Louisiana, Nebraska and Maine. Today polls seem to indicate Clinton could stand to lose three more contests in Virginia, Maryland and the District Of Columbia. If this string of eight losses in a row materializes and Obama continues to build momentum how can the Clinton campaign not be concerned? Certainly this trend doesn't look good or heading in a positive direction.

But Clinton is not yet out for sure. Certainly her campaign is reeling with the string of losses, has money problems and has responded with changed campaign managers, yet can still manage a political comeback using primary contests in states like Wisconsin or Texas to make a stand and create a sort of last ditch, Obama-stopping firewall attempt. Will it work? Who knows at this point. But certainly Obama is the candidate building the big MO at this moment and even draws overall higher public approval numbers than either Clinton or McCain. In a general election, Obama is the only candidate who draws more than 50% public approval numbers right now at 52%. Clinton only garners 48% and McCain 47%. Obama may just be unstoppable.

Latest Delegate Count

The latest delegate count shows Hillary Clinton with a very slight lead in the Democratic race only because of the role of the superdelegates and John McCain closing in victory in the GOP race despite some late efforts by religious conservative, Mike Huckabee:

Democrats: Clinton total 1,148(Pledged 924, Superdelegates 224), Obama total 1,121(Pledged 986, Superdelegates 135), Edwards total 26(Pledged 26, Superdelegates 0), Others 0 - 2,025 needed to win

Republicans: McCain total 723(Pledged 697, Unpledged RNC 26), Romney total 286 pledged delegates, Huckabee total 217(Pledged 214, Unpledged RNC 3), Paul total 16 pledged delegates, Others 0 - 1,191 needed to nominate

Huckabbee Cries Foul At Washington State Vote Count

GOP candidate Mike Huckabee is crying foul at the way the vote was counted by the Republican Party officials in the Washington state Republican caucus. Party officials who likely are favorable to John McCain simply stopped counting the votes and declared John McCain the winner before all of the votes were counted according to Huckabee's complaint's.

When the votes were close with McCain at a little over 25% and Huckabee close at 23%, Republican Party officials decided to stop counting votes, preventing Huckabee from overtaking McCain in the vote count according to the concerns of Huckabee. Huckabee feels that he may have been denied a victory in the state because of this. Indeed it seems strange for a party sponsored caucus to simply stop counting the votes while one candidate has a slight lead and this may become a major scandal unless Republican Party officials can offer some reasonable explanation or remedy.

Ralph Nader Is Sure Sounding Like A Candidate For 2008

Ralph Nader just had to cast some shadow over Super Tuesday, and has sent out a new mass Email today which refers to Clinton and Obama as "corporate welfare kings". Nader further attacks Clinton for her service as a young lawyer to the "union-busting Wal-Mart" and Obama for keeping the nuclear option on the table in the event of a national security crisis.

Nader further seems to answer his own question about "who will challenge the corporate welfare kings?" by using the new website name, www.naderexplore08.org, which has to be just about as subtle as mallet.

Apparently Ralph Nader has yet to be convinced at the harm that was done to the country when he split the vote in 2000 and no doubt cost Al Gore the election with the narrow loss in Florida.

Ralph Nader is sure not going to elected in 2008. But if the race becomes very tight, he could once again prove to be a spoiler again. Rather than compromise some of his ideals for the sake of keeping regressives from taking the White House again, Nader shouldn't let his opinions or ego once again get in the way of some political compromise for the sake of the country. But the smart money is that Nader will run again. All the signs are sure there.

Rasmussen Reports Begins Daily Clinton-McCain 2008 Race Tracking Poll

Rasmussen Reports now seems so sure of Clinton-McCain matchup in November that they are beginning a daily tracking poll despite a close national tracking of Obama with Clinton and a dead even McCain-Romney Republican race.

Rasmussen appears to be weighing the likely strengths of Clinton and McCain in enough key Super Tuesday states to view these two as nearly unstoppable despite last ditch efforts by both Obama and Romney to wrest their party nominations.

Conservative talk radio personalities such as Rush Limbaugh hope to give romney some last ditch support and still continue to mischaraterize John McCain as a "liberal" despite him having the second most conservative voting record among U.S. senators in the 109th Congress. McCain's extent of bipartisan is hardly any greater than most in the senate, and his support for campaign financing reform was only in response to his major role as a leading figure in the "Keating Five" Lincoln Savings & Loan collapse scandal of the 1980's and his anger at George Bush's South Carolina primary win in 2000 that set back McCain's presidential ambitions by eight years. This is hardly any real sign of any "liberalism" of any type. If anything, McCain is even to the right than former Senator Barry Goldwater on many issues such as civil rights for Gays.

Latest Delegate Count

Here's the latest estimated delegate count before Super Tuesday's big event:

Democrats: Clinton 232, Obama 158, Edwards 62, Others 0 - Needed to nominate 2,025

Republicans: McCain 97, Romney 74, Huckabee 29, Paul 6, Giuliani 2, Others 0 - Needed to nominate 1,191

Super Tuesday could nearly put McCain over the top, but the Obama-Clinton race likely continues for a few more weeks.

Romney Will Dip Into His Deep Pockets For A Last Ditch Attack Ad Campaign For Super Tuesday

Mitt Romney is going to dip into his deep financial pockets to fund a last ditch huge nationwide attack ad casmpaign in last hopes to stop John McCain on Super Tuesday. Romney's campaign is reeling after the loss in Florida and his last hopes of avoiding a Super Tueday knockout from McCain come from stopping him in as many states as possible.

Unlike the Democrats, where all races are proportional in delegates, some Republican contests such as Florida are winner-take-all events.

The campaign for Romney could well be over after Super Tuesday if McCain blows him out in one state after another. Whether this 11th hour effort really works remains to be seen, but likely is too late to do any real good or prevent McCain from grabbing the nomination.

Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans seem to choose their leaders more similiar to the old Soviet Polibureau system, where elderly leaders wait for turn to head the party long after their best days have passed. Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and now John McCain seem to best represent this.