Pundits are starting to own up to the reality we’ve reached since March 4th: Barack Obama can’t win the general election in the fall, because he cannot win battleground states Democrats NEED to win to keep John McCain out of the White Hose.
Hillary Clinton proved she can win in battleground states like Ohio. The next important battleground will be Pennsylvania on April 22nd.
There is a reason some states are called general election “battlegrounds.” It is because partisan identification is roughly even, or because certain groups in the electorate, such as Catholics, Hispanics or blue-collar whites, switch their allegiances — or split their votes. That’s why Clinton made so much in her victory speech about the “bellwether” nature of Ohio: “It’s a battleground state. It’s a state that knows how to pick a president. And no candidate in recent history, Democrat or Republican, has won the White House without winning the Ohio primary,” she said.
There is no papering over the depth of the problem Obama faced there. He won only five of the state’s 88 counties, an inauspicious foundation for a general election campaign. Clinton trounced him among Catholic voters, 63 percent-36 percent, according to exit polls. She beat him among voters in every income category and bested him by 14 points among those making less than $50,000 annually.
This is why Pennsylvania, which is demographically similar to Ohio — and a must-win state for Democrats in November — is considered such fertile ground for Clinton on April 22.
If Obama cannot win Pennsylvania, he has no hope of winning the general election. If Obama cannot best Clinton in Pennsylvania, with 7 weeks to convince voters he is the best choice in this race, then Obama should step aside.
As Maxine Waters would famously say, “You resign!”.
