Stan Geiger

Keystone Analysis

Thank God it's over. Another week's worth of Obama, Clinton and Pennsylvania and I think I would have hurled. I will say, however, that the six-week campaign did allow both candidates ample to time to explain to the nation why neither should be president. So at least some good came out of it.

The Democrats, in my view, find themselves between a rock and a hard place. It's come down to a choice between two candidates, neither of which is electable. And if that isn't bad enough, Obama and Clinton continue to hammer away at each other and burning campaign funds while McCain wanders around unmolested and spending no money.

Clinton points to her record in the big states---Pennsylvania in particular---as rationale to back her argument that Obama can't win the general election. I think she has a point. Though greatly outspending his opponent, and even though the vote was limited to Democrats, Obama lost by 10 percentage points.

Pennsylvania, relative to any Democrat's ability to win the White House, is indeed a Keystone State. And the results of the primary clearly show Obama can't carry it in a general election.

Of course, Clinton's argument relative to Obama's shortcomings does nothing to support an argument that she is electable.

The Clintons have seen their image among voters that once adored them diminished in the course of this campaign. They have both been caught in public lies. Hillary, in true Clinton style, bends with the wind. Whatever works on whatever day. Pennsylvania was a good example. After Obama's "bitter" remark, Clinton moved to paint herself as a shot-drinkin', gun-totin' country girl from Scranton, not the multimillionaire Yale elitist that once told her husband president to screw the working people, and that he owed them nothing.

By all accounts, when the convention rolls around Obama will have more popular votes, more delegates and more states in the win column. Yet Clinton refuses to step aside. She's apparently clinging to the hope of pulling a rabbit out of the hat with the so-called "super-delegates." I see no way that can happen. If the Democratic Party's elite take the nomination away from Obama and give it to Clinton, the Democratic Party can wave bye-bye to the black vote. And the party simply can't afford to do that.

So, Obama's da man. Unfortunately for the Dems, he is in full self-destruct mode. There is the Jeremiah Wright thing, of course. But two other things happened during the Pennsylvania campaign that were just as damaging.

One was the comment about small-town people and their guns and religions. In so many words, Obama called rural folk stupid. And his comment hit home. That showed in what the pundits call the "internals." Obama's numbers among Democrats that own guns and/or go to church were dismal.

The other was Obama's negative attack ads. For all his lofty talk about changing politics, he showed himself to be just another politician willing to sink to any level to get himself elected.

Dumb move, I'd say. Obama was going to lose Pennsylvania, and he knew it. Going on the attack wasn't going to change that. But going negative will likely undermine his credibility going forward.

Attack ads are expensive, but that seems to present no problem for Obama. He's got campaign money coming out his wazzoo. And, as a closing side note, I find that most interesting.

So the story goes, Obama isn't accepting contributions from the big-money political interests. All of his money comes from average Americans, at 50 bucks here and a 100 bucks there. Yet his campaign, from the get, has been awash in cash. Even the Clinton machine hasn't been able to keep up with him.

I believe they are called "straw-man donors." Campaign money can be, in effect, laundered. It comes from wealthy interests but gets broken down to small amounts and given in other people's names. I find it hard to accept the fact that Obama can blow away every candidate in the race when it comes to raising money when all of his contributions are coming in the form of nickels and dimes from Average Joe and Jane.

According to local news reports, Tulsa's own multi-billionaire, George Kaiser, is an Obama backer. George ain't no minor leaguer. When he moves money, he moves a lot of it.

Maybe somebody out there needs to take a look at Obama's 1.3 million donors to see how many of them are dead.

---