Why Obama should win it all, and why Hillary should stay in

He’s inspired. He’s smart. He’s attractive. And he won big last night in North Carolina while nearly taking Indiana. The speech Barack Obama gave in Raleigh shortly after polls closed there, rang like a clarion call to a new world order, a new politics. It rang with the tone of the New Millennium we thought we were ushering in eight or nine years ago. A future based on smart ideas, unity, dialog, reverence for the Earth, and a new politics that appeals to the better angels of our natures. Watching Obama, listening to his ideas, I was astounded. Where has this man been lately? This was a natural born leader at work. Longterm, McCain will not be able to measure up. Short term, Hillary is finished, barring some huge and unfortunate event.

And yet, Hillary should not be summarily yanked from the game. I’m not a fan of her brand of politics, as you know. I despise many of her ideas, her threats to “totally obliterate” Iran are repulsive. Her support of George W. Bush’s war remains inexcusable, but solely on a tactical level, I can see why she’ll not go gentle into that good night.

Obama took a giant step toward winning the Democratic nomination last night, but it’s not a sure thing. Anything could happen, and Hillary could yet find herself in a position to carry the Democratic pennant in the fall. Obama narrowly avoided Strike 3 last week, by knocking Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s incendiary comments out of the ball park. But more hardballs are coming his way, and they’re packing heat.

I’ve alluded to several in past blog spots, and I’ll name three here that could all but hand Hillary the nomination if Obama and those handling and protecting him are not careful.

1. Obama’s relationship with Tony Rezko could come back to haunt him in a big way. The Rezko trial wends on. New evidence could yet surface regarding unsavory associations that include the ghost of Saddam Hussein, crazy as that sounds.

2. The swift-boaters have lots to work with even without Rezko or the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the game. There’s the alleged friendship between Obama and former Weather Underground radicals in Chicago. Sure, McCain and Hillary have equally unsavory associates, but Obama is reluctant to throw such heat their way. Not because it undercuts his image as a new kind of politician, but rather because he really is a new kind of politician. He just might be too nice a guy for the dirty way politics play out in this country.

3. Obama is physically vulnerable. The unspeakable could happen. Omens of danger emerge from time to time. Take the time the feds closed weapons checkpoints as crowds flooded into an Obama rally in Dallas. Or the time autograph and photograph peddlers stalked Obama at a book-signing. They were inches away. Imagine a stalker armed with something other than a camera.

I raise such specters only to point out that anything could happen. And if something does, before August, Hillary will be ready and waiting to pick up the pieces.