Obama's next (and potentially campaign-lethal) mistake...

[SuperHornet]

The papers are reporting today that Obama is going to immediately start ignoring Hillary and is planning on declaring victory on 20 May based on potentially phony target numbers (depending on whether or not one accepts the MI/FL delegates).

This is poor strategy at best. By ignoring Hillary, he's leaving the door open for her to win big in the remaining states and take the nom out from under his nose. Also, by possibly prematurely declaring victory, he stands the chance of looking like a fool if the superdelegates come through for Hillary at the convention.

Now, there's no guarantee that all this is going to happen. But one shouldn't count one's eggs before they're hatched, to borrow a cliche. If this is indeed Obama's big screw-up, he may never recover for another campaign. This is worse than C-Webb's bogus time-out.

[Col Hogan]

The papers are reporting today that Obama is going to immediately start ignoring Hillary and is planning on declaring victory on 20 May based on potentially phony target numbers (depending on whether or not one accepts the MI/FL delegates).

This is poor strategy at best. By ignoring Hillary, he's leaving the door open for her to win big in the remaining states and take the nom out from under his nose. Also, by possibly prematurely declaring victory, he stands the chance of looking like a fool if the superdelegates come through for Hillary at the convention.

Now, there's no guarantee that all this is going to happen. But one shouldn't count one's eggs before they're hatched, to borrow a cliche. If this is indeed Obama's big screw-up, he may never recover for another campaign. This is worse than C-Webb's bogus time-out.

I don't know who "The papers" are...but I heard The Illinois senator this morning speaking from the House building in DC where he visited some supporters...

He was very clear that he expected HRC to stay in the race and he was focusing on winning as many delegates in the remaining races...with a lot of attention to go to Oregon...

[Mvemjsunpx]

The papers are reporting today that Obama is going to immediately start ignoring Hillary and is planning on declaring victory on 20 May based on potentially phony target numbers (depending on whether or not one accepts the MI/FL delegates).

This is poor strategy at best. By ignoring Hillary, he's leaving the door open for her to win big in the remaining states and take the nom out from under his nose. Also, by possibly prematurely declaring victory, he stands the chance of looking like a fool if the superdelegates come through for Hillary at the convention.

Now, there's no guarantee that all this is going to happen. But one shouldn't count one's eggs before they're hatched, to borrow a cliche. If this is indeed Obama's big screw-up, he may never recover for another campaign. This is worse than C-Webb's bogus time-out.

Um, the only primaries after May 20th. are MT, SD, & Puerto Rico, totaling just 86 delegates (about half Hillary's current pledged delegate deficit). And there's really no way Hillary will win Montana or South Dakota given that this region of the country just doesn't like her. She's looking at a delegate split at best in those 3 contests.

The superdelegates aren't going to "come through" for Hillary at the convention. What possible reason would they have to do so? They're going to go with the more popular, less negatively viewed candidate. By going strongly for Clinton, many of the superdelegates would only be jeopardizing their own job security.

This isn't a sporting event. We're not going to see a "the favored team was too cocky so they lost the Super Bowl" type of scenario. Looking at the delegate count, Obama winning the nomination is, though not an absolute certainty, in the 99.9% range. Extending the football metaphor, Obama's leading by 3 touchdowns with 1 minute to play. Teams just don't lose in that scenario.

Obama should be ignoring Hillary. Hillary is trivial now.

[BigApp]

His biggest mistake is not telling Americans what he really wants: