The Political Whore

… is a crushing win tomorrow by Barack Obama, since that would effectively end the contest with Hillary Clinton and pave the way for the Florida convention delegates to be seated at the national soiree. (Help me, Obi Wan Obama, you’re my only hope.)

How likely is that?

In Ohio, Hillary hangs onto a 6 point consensus lead, but Obama’s trendlines are strong and it looks like it is anybody’s race by Election Day tomorrow. Here’s the way Pollster.com puts it:

In Texas, Obama has caught Clinton and the race is a statistical dead heat. Again, here is the Pollster.com consensus:

Clinton has a nearly 9 point lead in the all-important Rhode Island primary (which apparently hasn’t had enough polling to even generate a regression trendline on Pollster.com), so she has that going for her. Which is nice.

Finally, sticking with my cultural reference theme today and the Star Wars quote earlier, we have to say that beyond the hope of Obama sweeping Tuesday handily for Florida Democrats, “There is another.” And that is the lawsuit filed by Tampa Democratic consultant Victor DiMaio and his lawyer, Hillsborough Democratic Chairman Michael Steinberg. Dismissed almost out of hand at the federal district level, the DiMaio lawsuit seeking a clarification of whether the party can actually strip the state of its convention delegates seems to have a second life. The full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to hear the case in oral arguments two weeks from today in Atlanta rather than affirm the district judge without a hearing, which would be the more common scenario.

DiMaio said in a written statement:

“Our lawsuit was filed when there were many more candidates running for president. I believe it would be a travesty if the millions of Floridians who went to the polls on January 29, more than Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina combined, and voted for their choice for President would have their votes not count. This Saturday, March 1, Democrats all over Florida in 25 Congressional Districts will begin the process of running for and electing delegates to the Democratic National Convention based on the results of the January 29th Presidential Preference Primary Election. Florida is the fourth largest state in the nation and we deserve to have our votes count and have a voice in deciding who the next President of the United States should be.”

If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Obama.

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