Sports metaphors are overused everywhere and we try to avoid them. But portends, that's different matter. We love portends. Yesterday, Big Brown cruised to an easy victory in the Preakness. The chestnut colt was relaxed and confident in the winner circle, despite having undergone considerable testing in the backstretch and despite the glare of the press eye around the track, all waiting for disaster to strike. But it did not, unless you were betting on a longshot. The long awaited end to the Democratic primary season is just about to end, the longshot is now the favorite son.Tuesday, Kentucky and Oregon, hold primaries and fortunately for everyone, there just aren't enough white supremacists left in 'Kaintuck to keep Obama from claiming a majority of elected delegates. He needs just 17 and he's likely to get somewhere around 52 - give or take a couple in either direction by the end of the day.
In the last couple of weeks, Obama has quietly gone ahead of Clinton by approximately 25 super-delegates. In fact, between his elected delegates and his pledged super-delegates, on Tuesday, Obama is most certainly to be over the necessary votes needed to garner the nomination. And then Huckabee the Huckleberry Hound Dog is really going to begin to look even dumber than before.
Also after Tuesday, Obama will have won 33 of 50 contests held to date. The Clinton camp can do the math any convoluted way they want, but you can do just as easily as can they, and it's pretty simple math.
Winning 33 of 50 battles is 66 percent of the contests. SIXTY-SIX PERCENT! That's called a 2/3's majority.
A majority of elected delegates is just that, A MAJORITY.
A majority of super-delegates is just that, A MAJORITY.
The rules (the ones that both candidates agreed to at the beginning of the race) require that one needs to get 2025 delegates to win the nomination. After Tuesday, Obama will have around 2236. Sounds like victory to me. Let's call it that and move forward.
So sad to say if you're a Clinonite, but that leaves you on the wrong side of all three of those equations and it means, IT'S OVER. DONE.
Obama is set to be in Iowa on Tuesday, where he began this historic run by winning the Iowa caucus, to claim victory. With only 2 weeks remaining before the final three contests: Puerto Rico, Montana, and South Dakota, Hillary Rodham Clinton may yet remain till the end but regardless of how historic her campaign has been, no one has yet figured out how to bring back to life a campaign that was euthanized two weeks ago on the track in Churchill Downs.
Warrior Ant Press will make this prediction. If Big Brown wins the Belmont Stakes in two weeks, John McCain doesn't stand a chance come this fall. If Big Brown isn't able to pull off the Triple Crown, expect the November race to come down to the wire.
Photo credit:J.David Ake, AP