22.Apr.08, 13:49 EDT Blog edited on: 22.Apr.08, 15:37 EDT
So this week we've had 4:20 day, Earth Day, and oh yes, the much-anticipated, fate-of-the-world Democratic primary in Pennsylvania. So now that we're smoked out and greened up, let's sit back and watch the bloated drama on cable news.
It is all about two numbers -- 10 and 50. Ten is the minimum number of points Hillary Clinton needs to finish ahead of Barack Obama today to stop people from telling her to drop out before the convention. And 50+ is the age of the dominant factor in primary voting. If Clinton can change her fate, it's this group that will do it for her.
According to the siftable wisdom of the pundits, no matter what, Clinton isn't going to win the delegate battle today. So she has to get over on the popular vote, which is possible with a state as big as Pennsylvania. There are more than four million people registered to vote in the Democratic primary today.
The question is whether the Obama youth and first-time voter juggernaut can overcome the Clinton registration and mobilization push these last weeks. Certainly he outraised and outspent her significantly. But she's been tireless in getting her message out there regardless.
Another factor I think is that after six weeks of campaigning in just one state, Pennsylvania has had the best chance to really get to know the candidates. Does the Obama sparkle hold up under intense, endless scrutiny? Does seeing Hillary around every corner smooth off some of her rough edges?
CNN has been doing this League of First Time Voters feature lately, which is a cool concept. Except that Rick Sanchez is doing a kind of voter's focus group in the mornings. Sanchez just makes me laugh. He's a Miami boy and I remember him from his local news days, when he embodied the over-the-top blowhard type of reporting that Comedy Central and SNL parody so well.
Plus, he was a little wild back in the day. In 1990, he pleaded no contest to a DUI after he hit a drunk pedestrian with his car after a Dolphins game. A few years before that, he had to leave his Miami reporting post for a couple of years after government wiretaps connected him to Alberto San Pedro, a drug dealer and political fixer nicknamed the "Great Corrupter."
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