Taken for Granted

It's amazing to me that Sen. Obama can say that he will be able to get Sen. Clinton's supporters to vote for him, but that she would not be able to get his supporters to vote for her.

On Meet The Press this morning both Jon Meacham, Newsweek editor, and conservative pundit Peggy Noonan are convinced that Obama supporters won't vote for Sen. Clinton if she is the nominee, but that Clinton supporters are jumping at the chance to support Obama. Who are these folks taking to?

No one that I know who support Sen. Clinton is 'jumping at the chance' to support Obama. Many, like me, might hold their nose and vote for him ... but that's it. And ABC News reported that only 53% of Clinton supporters would back an Obama candidacy.

In a sign of just how divisive and ugly the Democratic fight has gotten, only 53% of Clinton voters say they'll vote for Obama should he become the nominee. Nineteen percent say they'll go for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and 13% say they won't vote.

Sixty percent of Obama voters say they'll go for Clinton should she win the nomination, with 20% opting for McCain, and three percent saying they won't vote.

I think this is something the party, and the super delegates, need to take a look at as this contest moves forward. What is their plan?

When you consider that it was Obama's people who blocked a revote in Michigan, I think that is a problem for the party. And Florida voters, who strongly support Sen. Clinton, are not going to have their votes counted -- I think that's a problem for the party.

When you include Michigan and Florida in the delegate count, Sen. Clinton is one delegate ahead of Sen. Obama, and probably -- though I don't have the numbers in front of me -- ahead of him in the popular vote. What does all this mean? To me it means that regardless of what votes ANYONE decides will actually count, Sen. Clinton is in a dead heat with Sen. Obama. So there is no justification for anyone to ask her to drop out of the race.

And my final though on all this is to say Obama supporters, and his surrogates on television, need to think twice before claiming that older women, who register and vote in greater numbers than any other group, can be taken for granted.