Ground Game

There’s much blog discussion today from this CNN Political Ticker post reporting that Hillary Clinton’s mostly uncontested victory yesterday in MI may reveal a possible deeper fissure with African-American voters:

Hillary Clinton faced a grim statistic in Michigan tonight, despite her primary "win" there: results revealed that she may have reason to worry about her grasp on the African-American vote.

Obama supporter Andrew Sullivan has been losing some credibility with media types for essentially spinning any Clinton news as negative and anything Obama-related as transcendent. But he raises a fair question here about the possible "blacklash" from the Clinton/Obama racial tension:

That's a brutal judgment on the front-runner in the Democratic race. I wonder if the Clintons have badly damaged their own party in their attempt to quash the hopes raised by Obama.

However, the Moderate Voice says Clinton has found her voice on this fight:

But, in the end, it was seemingly Clinton’s night as she downplayed conflict, subtly (or not too subtly) hurled verbal daggers at Obama, and framed many of her comments as if she was already the 2008 Democratic party nominee, blasting President George Bush’s record and the Republicans.

Meanwhile, Open Left’s Chris Bowers puts aside the rhetorical talking points and sees an electoral upswing for Obama:

If he can trounce Clinton among African-Americans without even being on the ballot, it seems that Obama has solidified African-Americans behind him nationwide. If, as Matt suggested yesterday, he can secure the white liberal vote, that would be a winning coalition in the Democratic primary nationwide. It would also be a repetition of his coalition in the Illinois Senate primary four years ago.