Now what?

Two big wins for John McCain. Two back-to-back victories for Romney. And Hillary Clinton is kicking butt and taking names. So what do we know for sure? In the Democratic camp, it is clearly down to a two-way race. If Clinton ekes out a victory in South Carolina, Obama can start crafting his concession speech and a shot at the V.P. slot. The GOP is more up in the air. Clearly, Thompson is a bridesmaid. Ron Paul can decide between a Libertarian run or writing a book on How to Run a World-class Government on Two Dollars a Day. The Giuliani strategy remains an intriguing gamble. And it is pretty clear that Romney has the Mormon vote. The rest, I confess, is a bit hazy. It wasn’t all that long ago that John McCain’s campaign was dead in the water. And there is plenty of time in politics for him to fall and rise again. One thing, however, has to be troubling. McCain’s narrow victories have been with a rag-tag confederation of Republican moderates, independents and the religiously lukewarm. The traditional Republican mainstay of the abortion-hating, illegal hard-lining, born-again church-goers seem to favor a Huckabee candidacy and they, on the whole, have always been a bit leery of McCain and his maverick ways. I mean, the man opposes torture; Can this fellow really be trusted? Winning over the base of the GOP means not alienating this powerful block. Can McCain do it? Well, he’s just won over the people that knocked him out of the running eight years ago. So, anything is possible.

Mitt Power

In the 1960 election John Kennedy captured the White House. He also captured 78% of the Catholic vote. But the Catholic vote was just a small percentage of the total votes the young President garnered. Contrast that with Mitt Romney’s hands down victory today in Nevada. Over half of his total votes came from the Mormon faithful. Whoopty-friggin’-do! That is as much a red flag as it is anything else. As the Reverend Huckabee will tell us, there are whole lot more Baptist votes than Mormon votes in those Red states. Sure, Romney has proven he can get a sentimental victory in Michigan. He has proven that he can get the sectarian vote in Nevada. But, while this keeps the GOP primaries a bit of a dog’s breakfast, it should not be counted as momentum for the Romney camp. We’ll see how Mormon boy does in a Bible-belt state like South Carolina. But hey, a win is still a win. And a Mormon vote gets counted like any other.

Dreamers vs. Doers

Staying on message is important in politics. And Senator Hillary Clinton is doing her darnedest. But gaffes happen. Like saying that Dr. King was a good little orator, but it took a Lyndon Johnson to give the Civil Rights Movement its traction. Yeah, not exactly the way you want to head into South Carolina. But despite how she mangled that moment––and mangle it she did–– her message is clear: Obama is a lovely symbol; Obama is an inspiring little speech maker. But the Presidency requires an entirely different skill set. Obama is a dreamer. Clinton is a doer. While Obama was off making prescient speeches against the war, she was in the Senate voting on important legislation. Like, you know, authorizing that…um…war. Which is how drawing this contrast always has a way of backfiring. (You know, like saying anything that diminishes a martyred MLK.) It always brings it back to what the doer has done. And in this case, the doer helped to do the invasion of Iraq. The thing that said doer keeps laying at the feet of this Republican President. Which inadvertently, seems to make the said dreamer a bit of a prophet. Which is a whole ‘nother kind of gaffe. For it seems to me, it leaves her audience with the absolute wrong message: Which do you want, electorate? A dreamer of big dreams or a doer who is asking for a do-over?