Over at TAP Online, Mark Schmitt comments on last nights results:
The Republican race has also had important interactions with the Democratic one. For the week and a half since the Republican South Carolina primary, it had become an implicit race against John McCain, and as a result for the only time all year, there's been a sense that Republicans could win. While to my ears, Obama makes a strong logical case that he would be the stronger match-up with McCain—he presents a sharp and favorable contrast in both age and ideology, and would not automatically lose the entire Mountain West, as Clinton would—superficially, the reaction to thinking about McCain as the opponent would be to turn to Ms. Ready-On-Day-One. With the Republican race back in turmoil, and a sense that they won't give the nomination to McCain without significant concessions to the social conservatives, Democrats will likely regain some of the confidence that would allow them to take a chance on a potentially transformative president.
And so, we have two races moving in very different directions: One is additive, as Obama builds a new coalition step by step and Clinton tries to bolster and add to the traditional Democratic base (for example, she added support among Asian-Americans in California to overcome the fact that Obama won both whites and blacks), which together lead to an expanding and ambitious party; the other subtractive, as it loses faith in one putative front-runner after another, shrinking in enthusiasm and confidence, along with votes.
Read the rest (and comment) here.
--The Editors
