The Obama Comeback

I actually think Barack Obama is in a pretty decent position. He has to earn the nomination instead of being handed it, and that's a good thing for the general election. He had the entire dump truck thrown at him in New Hampshire, and so he can trick out where to fight back; I'd say that calling out Hillary for that bullshit "Obama won't protect choice" mailer would be a good place to start. He got two union endorsements in Nevada, where the media will be paying attention (MSNBC has a big Nevada debate the same day as the Michigan beauty contest, which will blunt the impact of that report. Hillary is the only major candidate still on the ballot in that Michigan race, but a victory will not be easily spun.)

Obama's apparently raising lots of money online in the past several days, INCLUDING today.

In the 4th Quarter of 2007, our campaign raised $23.5 million – over $22.5 million of which is for the primary election. In that quarter, we added 111,000 new donors for a total of 475,000 donors in 2007.

In the first 8 days of 2008, we raised over $8 million and gained 35,000 new donors. Since midnight last night, we have raised another $500,000 online. We continue to build a grassroots movement that makes us best-positioned to compete financially in the primaries and caucuses coming up.

South Carolina looked REALLY good for Obama before the New Hampshire totals, with double-digit leads in the polls. Edwards is not surging, but the fact that he'll compete in South Carolina, where he's likely to get at least some of the "beer track" vote, pulling it from Clinton.

Also, this appears to be a race where there won't be just one "swing," and if Obama does win South Carolina he'll have the momentum heading into Feb. 5.

Now, the horse-race is out of my system.