Cheer for McCain
Opinion is divided over whether the ongoing Democratic primary contest helps or hurt John McCain. Some say that it writes him out of the news, making him look like an irrelevance. Others claim that by the end of it, the Democratic nominee will be so bloodied that they will have been seriously weakened for the general election campaign. Ryan Lizza’s excellent essay in The New Yorker suggests that the later is more likely. As Lizza writes, “The newfound strength of Clinton’s war room is vital for her going forward. Her campaign realizes that if it is unable to overcome Obama’s lead in pledged delegates, there may be only one other path to victory: to make the case to superdelegates—and the Party establishment—that Obama could not defeat John McCain in the general election, and that, therefore, the will of the voters should not be binding.”
Not only does this mean that if Obama wins the nomination he will have had much of the shine knocked off him but also that if Hillary succeeds in this campaign she will have alienated many of Obama’s supporters. The whole process will also require Hillary to talk McCain up, emphasising his national security credentials and in the process turning him into a mor formidable general election candidate.