Long Dem battle may not be so bad
As some newspaper columnists and pundits keep hammering Hillary Clinton for staying in the race, Joan Walsh of Salon.com had another take. Based on Dan Balz's article today, Walsh argues that the long battle is actually helping democrats. How so? Walsh:
"Where so many other pundits are wringing their hands and suggesting that the increasingly nasty battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is only helping John McCain, Balz examines primary turnout and voter registration numbers and finds a silver lining for Democrats: Democratic registration and turnout are at all-time highs in many states. The party's registration numbers topped 4 million in Pennsylvania for the first time in history, thanks to a push by both candidates in advance of the April 22 primary there. Meanwhile, Republican registration actually dropped by 1 percent, to 3.2 million. A Pew Research Center study found that only 27 percent of voters polled identified themselves as Republicans, a drop of 6 percentage points since 2004, "the lowest GOP identification in 16 years of surveys," Balz says."
She cites Balz's article, explaning that "the picture is even brighter when it comes to voter turnout in the recent primaries, especially in key congressional districts the Democrats need to win, or hold, in November."
Both Balz and Walsh make an interesting and refreshing case. Regardless, I'm sure once we're back in primary-mode, the doom and gloom way of looking at the long dem battle will be buried for a while--especially if Hillary Clinton wins Pennsylvania with a large margin.
Obama, Clinton, democratic nomination, balz, walsh
