My column on the Pennsylvania primary is up at TAP. A taste:Some laughed when Clinton compared herself to Rocky: She is, after all, the anointed leader of the most powerful family and political organization in Democratic politics. But the analogy appears more apt than she knew. Rocky, after all, did not beat Apollo Creed, not in that movie. Rather, at the end of his match, when he slurred "I did it!" to Adrian, he was exulting in having gone the full 15 rounds before he lost. This looks to be Clinton's strategy as well. Behind on points, she can only fight to hang on. These days, it's Clinton, more than Obama, who's reliant on the "politics of hope" -- hoping that she'll land a lucky punch, or her opponent will suffer an unexpected disqualification, or possibly be brained by an improperly secured spotlight tumbling from the arena roof. These, however, are not factors within her control. They cannot be willed into being by a disciplined campaign or a retooled message. And so Clinton must hang on, ensuring that she's positioned to take advantage of any gifts providence might see fit to send her way.Many of Obama's partisans, for their part, see something intrinsically illegitimate in this strategy. But Clinton's continued presence is not, as they'd have it, the sole product of a self-absorbed, almost pathological tenaciousness. Rather, Obama has failed to land the knockout blow. He has not overwhelmed her in any of the psychologically critical battleground states -- not in Pennsylvania, not in Ohio, and not in Texas. Insofar as Clinton's argument is that Obama is weak among the white ethnics who populate the critical Midwestern swing states, he has not proven capable of delivering the decisive electoral rejoinder that would transform her losing but close candidacy into a mere vanity project that the superdelegates would have every right and reason to abandon. Viewed one way, Rocky made it 15 rounds because he was determined. Viewed another, he got there because Creed never laid him out.Read the whole thing...
