Yesterday, Mrs. Clinton pulled a rabbit out of the hat and is still alive for the Democrat party nomination for President. She took three out of the four contests including the two big ones, Ohio and Texas. Her three victories yesterday, makes it impossible for one of the two candidates to get enough delegates to secure the nomination before the convention. That insures that they will be at each other’s throat from now until June. That is great for the Republican Party. We do not have to find the dirt on the candidates; they will do our research for us.

The remaining states are important for the two candidates, in that victories makes their argument stronger to the Super Delegates. The Democrats have Super Delegates that go to the convention and are not obligated to vote the same way their state voted. They did this to prevent another McGovern getting in there to get his clock cleaned. With everyone looking at the process, it looks like the old smoke filled rooms picking the candidate. That is exactly what the Democrat party is trying to avoid.

The Democrat party is caught on the horns of a dilemma. As things look right now, if the Super Delegates pick Mrs. Clinton, then Barack Obama and his supporters will be upset. They will have a point because he won more votes than she did in the primaries and he has more delegates. She will point out that she won more of the big states, the ones that the Democrat party needs to win in November. If the party picks Obama, then Mrs. Clinton’s supporters will be upset. What are they to do? What will most likely happen is that the one that promises the most to the Super Delegate gets that Super Delegate. So, the one with the most money or privilege will be the winner. The problem is that Mrs. Clinton controls the party power structure and can hand out privilege. Obama has raised the most money and can hand out the money. The difference will be in what will buy that particular Super Delegate.

Right now, Florida and Michigan have delegates that do not count. The Democrats will probably have to hold new elections in those two states to make things “fair”. Democrats love to make things “fair” Unfortunately for them, in their urge to make things fair, they make them unfair. The elections in Florida and Michigan will prolong the agony for the two campaigns. They will have to spend money like drunken sailors. Again that is good for the Republican Party. If the Democrats are spending their large bank accounts on each other, they are not spending it on John McCain. That is a good thing as John McCain will most likely have less money than the Democrat candidate for President.

For John McCain, he needs to make nice with the Republican base. That will strengthen his hand going into the November election. He just secured the nomination yesterday, but there have been no signs from John McCain that he intends to make any inroads to the Republican right. Right now, it looks like John McCain is repeating the Bob Dole campaign strategy. That strategy lost. His campaign advisors have made statements that make it sound like they do not intend to run as a Republican. They sound like they want to run John McCain as a Democrat “lite”. That is always a losing strategy. If someone wants a Democrat, they can always pick the real thing. The same thing holds true when Democrats run as Republican “lite”. That is generally a losing strategy because voters can always pick the real thing.

I hope that John McCain starts to act like a Republican and picks a Vice-President that reflects Republican values. There are a number of Republicans that would qualify in that category. I hope that he selects someone that is well respected as a conservative by the Republican base. I hope he picks someone that the Republican base can get excited about. The choice will go a long way to show what a John McCain Presidency will be like. I get the feeling that it will be like George Bush. It will be strong on National Defense and Democrat on social issues. George Bush at least is solid on abortion. I think that John McCain would also be solid on abortion. He has consistently voted pro-life over his entire career. Part of that is a reflection on the people he represents. I hope that a long tradition of support for the pro-life position will translate into a strong pro-life plank in his administration.

I do feel that John McCain can defeat either Democrat candidate. He has to get the debate around to national security to insure his victory. Al Qaeda doing a big attack during the election season, particularly in September or October would be a real boost to his candidacy. The surge on the ground is succeeding. The longer it goes on the longer the strategy is correct. The longer it is perceived as correct, the more likely that people will support the people responsible for the surge, not the people against it. If the debate ends up on Democrat issues like health care then the Democrats just might pull it out.