Hillary Bawls and Breaks Even

In a stunning reality-check, Barack Obama's predicted New Hampshire primary victory by two digits was turned out to be Hillary Clinton's win...by two points. Exit poll statistics seem to indicate that Mrs. Clinton won on the votes of lesser-educated women and that many of the independents who helped fuel Senator Obama's Iowa landslide chose in New Hampshire to vote for the Republican primary victor, John McCain.

Having thoroughly embarrassed themselves by effectively declaring the primaries won on the strength of one contest out of fifty, the mainstream media is now constructing a narrative that attributes Clinton's "out-of-nowhere" two-point victory to winning sympathy on the basis of a moment that would've surely ended the candidacy of any male contestant for the presidency-- the moment when the woman who's tough enough to bomb Iran broke down and teared up over the prospect of perhaps not moving back into the White House after all.

If this narrative bears any relation to the truth, then we are doomed and rightly so. The fate of the nation lies in the hands of stay-at-home moms, Denny's waitresses, and the pudgy broads trudging into any given Walmart on any given weekend.

While it is certain that the Clinton candidacy will paint this squeaker as a landslide victory (it is, in fact a thinner margin that the one that delivered us into the hands of George W. Bush in the first place), it is an effective tie--Clinton and Obama each walk away with with nine more delegates in the only only contest the really matters.

Meanwhile, the race for the U.S. Presidency is once more a race--which is not a bad thing; the country is no better served by an Obama coronation than it was by the planned Clinton coronation that preceded it. If Obama truly justifies the high and inspired hopes his first win inspired, he'll prove it as this grueling process continues. If Hillary Clinton truly has any substantive claim on her husband's former office beyond having formerly slept in the same building, we'll get to see that as well. And let's not forget that there are a few other people in this race as well who deserve to be heard as well. Perhaps now that the media superstars are tied, perhaps the pundits might find time to talk to, or at least about, someone else for a change.