A Buckeye Blowout Gives Obama a Black Eye

Posted by Marc Ginsberg

Ohio, nicknamed the “Buckeye” State, just gave a black eye to Barack Obama.  Gaining in the last few days, the late deciding voters turned it around for Clinton, with a major victory there.  She swamped Obama by breaking into the white male vote…the very underemployed/unemployed white male voter that she was counting on to give her the edge.  Clinton, now taking the stage in Ohio’s capital of Columbus, even before the results are in in Texas, is now very much back in the race no matter what Obama supporters may spin.

The Democratic Party now faces the prospect of a fight to the finish — at least giving the Democratic Superdelegates a super headache because the tug of war over their loyalties and the electoral math that each candidate will claim justifies their loyalty.  With almost four weeks to go before the last major primary in Pennsylvania the negative campaigning between Obama and Clinton is sure to get worse.

Her victory is a harbinger that Obama may be increasingly vulnerable to Clinton’s charges that he lacks the experience to deliver the change he promises and is too callow to be a credible Commander-in-Chief.

Texas is still in play, and at this hour, it is too close to call.  But the Buckeye state, is a bellwhether state, and Mrs. Clinton has a credible victory that will shift the dynamic if the race.  She has won less states than Obama, but has won more of the major states than Obama.  Yet, Obama may very well emerge after the evening is over with more delegates than Clinton, and that is a fact that will still put him ahead of her in the race to achieve the magic number of 2,025 delegates to claim the nomination at Denver’s August convention.