Switching from Clinton to Obama
Sarasota — I voted for Hillary Clinton in the Jan. 29 primary. She has an in-depth knowledge of all the issues and would be an excellent Democratic nominee and president.
I closely observed Barack Obama in the subsequent weeks. He also has an in-depth knowledge of all the issues. His approach to problem solving is solid. He has inspired voters from all segments of the electorate to participate in the primary process. These voters will enable the Democrats to expand their pluralities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This will ensure that an Obama presidency can effectively implement the programs for which he is campaigning.
On Saturday, I will be voting for an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
It's over for Clinton, expert says
SARASOTA — It is "nearly impossible" for Sen. Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic Party's nomination for president, one of the nation's best-known political scientists told an audience here Wednesday.
Even if Clinton wins critical votes in Ohio and Texas on Tuesday, Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said she would have to win by such large margins to catch up to Sen. barack Obama that it is hard to imagine.
While Clinton leads in Ohio in most public polling, she and Obama are nearly tied in Texas opinion polls.
Overall, Obama has 159 more pledged delegates than Clinton and leads the overall popular vote by 925,000 over Clinton, not counting Florida and Michigan, where candidates were banned from campaigning. Catching Obama in delegates would require Clinton to win more than 60 percent of the vote in all the states with primaries remaining, Sabato said.
Even when she was the clear favorite, Sabato said, he was convinced that Clinton would not win the nomination because of "Clinton fatigue." He said that in President Clinton's last year in office in 2000, polls showed his approval rating to be very low. People were fed up with the Clintons, he said.
When Bill Clinton became a big player in his wife's campaign, it only rekindled what people did not like about the Clintons, Sabato said.
"He overdid it," Sabato told about 200 people at the Ritz-Carlton.
The event was sponsored by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, the Collins Center for Public Policy and the Institute for Public Policy and Leadership at The University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee.
Sabato also predicted that Democrats would easily hold both the House and the Senate in the 2008 elections, and said he expects Democrats to add to their majorities in both chambers.
Sabato is the author of "A More Perfect Constitution." The book explores ways to update and change the Constitution, which he argues is what the founders wanted. He quoted Thomas Jefferson and George Washington on the need for continued reassessment of the document.
"They expected us to have regular constitutional conventions," Sabato said.
Jeremy Wallace can be reached at 361-4966 or jeremy.wallace@ heraldtribune.com.
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