Preliminary results from Hillary Clinton's "I'm just gonna smear Obama" thrust are in, and things are not looking good for Mrs. Clinton. Clinton only edges McCain by three points in the states of California and Connecticut, blue states that Kerry won handily and that Barack Obama carries handily by margins of nine and seventeen percentage points, respectively. And she claims that Obama is unelectable?
The California thing should be a wakeup call to uncommitted superdelegates. Only about a third of the country likes her at this point, and it would appear that California will be in play in the general election with Hillary at the top of the ticket. Prior to this it made more sense to let the process play out--after all, it seemed as though Clinton and Obama were equally as electable. I think that there are now enough data points to indicate that she has alienated independents, and her ability to carry California as a Democrat seems iffy at this point, which would be fatal in a general election. It's time for the superdelegates to step in--these data provide some decent cover.
