Why Clinton can't win the General Election

I thank Marc Cooper for his thoughtful post following yesterday's Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island primaries. So Hillary Clinton won three primaries, but without such an overwhelming margin to get enough of the available delegates to start "eating" into Barack Obama's delegate lead. And if this trend continues, we will end in a situation where neither candidate has enough delegates before the Denver Democratic Convention -- in September no less -- rather late in the game.

Now, a lot of the pundits are already predicting that the Clinton Machine has a way to finagle the delegates and the numbers into Hillary's favor, so that Hillary ends up winning the democratic nomination. But that's just the problem--we're talking about a "Machine". And what this country needs now is not a "Machine", but a real leader -- not the same old and tired ideology, but the inspiration to change the way the political landscape operates. Since the Reagan years we have had 20 years of the same two families dominating politics in this country. Don't you think it's time for that to change?

I am not even going to start on Hillary's negatives. She has too many. But, in many of my discussions with Republicans, her negatives come to the forefront. I actually live in a Red State (yeah, a bummer, I know). Here is an interesting discussion I had recently with a female voter who voted for Obama in the primary:

"If Clinton wins the nomination, I am not going to vote in the general election in November," she said.
"Why," I asked her? "Aren't you tired of the War, and the Republicans and all the mistakes?"
"Yes, I am, but...."
"Well, what is it about Clinton, that turns you off about her? What would prevent you from voting for her in November?"
"She's married to an adulterer. I am all for forgiveness and second chances, but this man, cheated on her, and in order to save her political career and future, she stayed with him. That is the only reason she stayed with him."

And that folks describes the feelings of many Republicans that I know who live in Red States, who would be prepared to vote for a Democrat in November, but simply refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton. I know others, a lot more savvy than me have adequately described her other high negatives. And we have already seen her run a negative campaign. Is this the sort of campaigning we want? At one time, I actually believed in John McCain (oh, about eight years ago), before the George W. Bush Machine led by Karl Rove tore him down and destroyed him during primary season. It appears that John McCain has (a) learned his lessons well from eight years ago, and has adapted negative campaigning, and (b) IS NOT the same candidate he was then-- supporting all sorts of things that seem opposite to what he stood for just eight years ago.

This race then is wide open... It's wide open for someone like Barack Obama to win it. Unfortunately, the political machinery in operation today seem to have greased their wheels behind candidates that offer the wrong choices for America. I will keep supporting Obama, and I will keep hoping this primary campaign remains fair, but who knows what can happen.