Is It Over or Full Speed Ahead?

Barack Obama won a decisive victory in North Carolina by slightly less than 230,000 votes last night and Hillary Clinton has won in Indiana by slightly more than 22,000 votes, so where does it leave things? If the statements of the candidates count for anything, it looks like more of the same all the way to the convention. The sad thing is that there is no legitimate way for either candidate to win the nomination outright without the influence of the superdelegates who may be more likely to use "electability" as determined by polling to affect their decision-making.

As a John Edwards supporter, we learned first hand that electability as measured by polls is hardly reliable. Remember that Hillary Clinton began as the "most electable" until she lost in Iowa. One of the tacts that Edwards supporters used was the idea that John Edwards was the most electable of the Democrats over any of the Republican candidates. As Edwards' campaign ran out of cash, it was clear that the logic didn't hold sway with voters who could have chosen to keep donating.

However superdelegates are party insiders who could be swayed by polls. It is my sincere hope that if the Democratic party hopes to hold itself together that the popular vote and earned delegates will be more influential than the limitations of polling which frankly is a snapshot in time, not a predictor of long-term outcomes.