In which the Democratic race is assessed.
A further word: I think that the key to this race now is that Obama or Clinton have win over at least a demographic sliver of the other’s constituency. Clinton will have a tougher time doing this. She might have had a larger slice of the African-American vote, and the nomination with it, but her husband’s South Carolina performance pretty much closed that door. She ain’t gonna get the youth vote. And she’s going to have a tough time winning over the upper income/academic demographic (At least, the male component of that vote.)
Obama, on the other hand, has a path to at least part of Clinton’s constituency. He needs to make–in a much more prominent way than he’s doing now–an economic offer that appeals to Clinton’s working class and Latino supporters. In my column a few weeks ago, I suggested that Democrats should embrace the big idea of an green-oriented economic stimulus package as part of a massive alternative energy plan. We’ll see if he goes there.
