Playing out the string

By Robert Schlesinger

I’ve gotten a chuckle watching the bloviators discussing the build-up to the Pennsylvania primary. The discussion naturally focuses on the expectations game, and what it would take for Hillary Clinton to have a substantive victory tonight.

The fact of the matter is that if Mrs. Clinton were an NFL team towards season’s end, her playoff chances would fall under the heading, “Needs help.”

There is, in other words, nothing that she can do tonight that will change the dynamics of the race.

I’ve been over this ground before, but I’ll re-summarize: There is no argument that Hillary Clinton can currently make that will give Democratic superdelegates reason or cover to piss off black voters.

The argument that Obama can’t win the big, Democratic states calls to mind a couple of wise-ass reactions: “That would be a serious problem for him if Hillary Clinton is the Republican nominee;” “It’s too bad the Democratic Party hasn’t come up with a way to weight the big states more — like giving them a larger number of delegates. What’s that? They already have…?”

Mrs. Clinton needs help — and not merely a losing streak by Obama. She needs a collapse. Wright on the campaign trail; an al Qaeda flag pin; Obama deploying words like “crackers” to describe white middle- and lower-class voters.

There’s no news here, but it bears repetition for anyone watching the coverage of the primary tonight — assuming she wins, don’t be fooled by the commentators who say it’s a close race, a new race, a restart or a clean slate. It’s just not.