A great day for McCain

The Democratic Primary season has moved past Texas and Ohio, with Hillary Clinton scoring must-win victories in both states. The real winner, however, may have been John McCain.

First, a little perspective...

While the story line in the mainstream media is focused on Hillary Clinton's "resurgent" campaign, it is worth remembering that Clinton was leading by more than 20 points in both Texas and Ohio less than a month ago. The real story is not one of Hillary's resurgence, nor even that she managed to hang on in both states.

The story worth remembering is how she managed to hang on.

Hillary Clinton has succeeded by raising the spectre of fear, and by appealing to the underlying racism of many voters. In short, she has used the same basic strategy that helped to re-elect George Bush in 2004.

Obama's campaign, which has outworked and outmaneuvered the Clinton campaign throughout most of the primary season bears its own share of the blame. Not only did Obama fail to make a strong case of the Clinton's role in NAFTA and other trade policies that have led to the destruction of manufacturing jobs in the United States, and especially Ohio, he sent mixed signals about his own positions in trade.

Clinton used these like a shiv to kill Obama's campaign in Ohio, a state that owes much of its economic woes to policies that were set in motion during the first Clinton administration.

As the Democratic Primary slouches toward Pennsylvania and Oregon, there is no reason to suspect that she will not continue to campaign on these issues, an in the process may fatally wound Obama for the general election, who will be in the delegate lead heading into the Democratic Convention in Denver.

If Clnton wins the nomination with that kind of campaign, the net result will be to alienate African Americans and the youth vote that are critical to the Democrats success in November.

Those inconvenient truths are reinforced by the fact that Clinton has a 51% unfavorable rating that has not wavered since the campaign began, and consistently polls behind Republican John McCain.

At the end of a not-so-super Tuesday, it seems clear that the winner of the Democratic Primaries in Texas and Ohio was John McCain.