Hillary BURNED the "Bern" last week in South Carolina and the entire southern Super Tuesday crowd..... Turning the tables on the Sanders campaign and bursting the New Hampshire Bernie bubble that has been touted as an indication that the voters were fed up with the "establishment" as soon enough, Hillary would be out of the race as the unhappy electorate rose up in support of the outsider, Bernie Sanders. New Hampshire, of course, was the proof! Oops....The bell sounded on election day in South Carolina, and the deluge began. Carrying the state with a 70+ point margin and a larger vote percentage of the Black vote than Barak Obama carried in 2008, Hillary "spanked" Bernie in SC . In fact, the Black Vote landslide that swept Bernie out to sea without a life preserver, was so strong that Bernie literally looked shell-shocked on election night. He will recover, of course, and will no doubt continue his campaign for real change in the party and in the election system right through the convention and beyond. Good for him. On the other hand, I have some real doubts that Bernie can breathe new life into his campaign... and find another path to the nomination. There is no "there" there...... If Sanders cannot find a way to do better in the minority communities of America, the glory road may become rutted and muddy. He may still become the "Happy Warrior" as a candidate of another era - Al Smith - was known in the 1930.....and slog his way into the Democratic Convention muddy and battered as Al Smith (from NY BTW) also did. But, then again, he lost too.
On the Republican side, came yet another great debate. A "great debate?" What a total disgrace. Name-calling like "liar", "fraud", "little Marco", Big Donald, total fake, and some veiled reference to someone's hands and manhood? What about topics like... say, immigration reform, economic growth and jobs, budget deficits, educational reform, infrastructure repair and expansion, foreign policy, war and peace, international trade, global warming and other environmental issues? At least one Republican, John Kasich, has the maturity and the common sense to refuse to participate in this national embarrassment, and, instead, focus on real issues that need to be addressed. As a Governor of a state, Ohio, Kasich knows that problems that are identified, need to be addressed. Schoolyard insults do nothing to either advance the solution ball or inform the public regarding options. I can tell you, one really unacceptable response to any looming problem cannot be to do nothing at all - which has been the Congressional Republican response to the very problem issues that they raise. Instead of a discourse of policy alternatives, we get a schoolyard brawl laced with vulgarity, insults and innuendo. At least the Democrats - Bernie and Hillary - have both put forward solid policy suggestions and alternatives for voters to consider.
More and more this race is looking like a contest between a screamer , Donald Trump representing some disappointed and disaffected Republicans and little else, and Hillary Clinton, an experienced and brilliant, if a bit battle-scarred, candidate. Of course, opposing candidates in both parties continue to make a case that they have a path to the nomination. With each passing week, it would appear that the "path" for them must run right through the biggest church that they can find. Pretty soon, they will need a miracle, and not a path.
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