The Clintonomenon

Less of a happy morning today for me. I'm not going to spin any of the typical campaign BS, and tell you how a small loss was actually a victory for Obama in New Hampshire. I heard Obama saying something quite similar on Today this morning (it's mornings like this, more than anything, when I miss having CNN.) I understand why he has to say 'well, Matt, we were down 20 points here just a few weeks ago, so to get this close is a big victory for our campaign.' I don't like it, of course. It would be super-duper if he would have the cojones to spurn the consultants and say 'well, of course I would have preferred to win here. But, I didn't, so I congratulate Senator Clinton on her excellent campaign and look forward to continuing the debate in Michigan, South Carolina, and beyond.'

But, of course, the mere fact of admitting defeat would be spun by the punditocracy of an admission of, well, defeat, and we can't have that!

That said, my feelings of the night pretty closely match what Kevin Drum said yesterday. In particular, I am very glad that, although it renders my prediction wrong, the New Hampshire result means that Iowa's ridiculous position didn't entirely decide the nomination.

Also, I am very excited about the fact that it looks like the question will not be decided on February 5th, which means that for the first time in my adult life, my primary vote may actually mean something! I have already gone to sign up as a volunteer at the Obama campaign to try and work in the Colorado caucus process.

So, a disappointing morning, but hardly the end of the world. As I've said many times, it's not like I think Hillary is a bad candidate, and I think she's make a good, competent president. I just think we can do better...