What now?

It's only fitting that we begin this blog on a cynical note.  Tuesday, March 4, 2008 was not a very promising day.  To begin with, John McCain formally locked up the Republican nomination after soundly beating Mike Huckabee in the Ohio primary.  While anyone who hasn't been living under a rock for the past two months knew that the Republican nomination has effectively been locked up since before Super Tuesday, tonight's formality did remind us of the maintenance of the status quo and other such dreary possibilities that a potential McCain presidency promises to bring.  What is strange to me is that despite George W. Bush's ridiculously low (and continually dropping) approval rate, the American people inexplicably seem to want another four years of his policies judging by their overwhelming support for Senator McCain.  On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton's resounding success in the Ohio primary and her nail-biting victory in Texas came as a bit of a surprise to many, myself included.  If the saying "as goes Ohio, so goes the nation" really holds any water, then I am truly frightened as to what direction the nation is headed in.  In the past few months since I have been studying at Notre Dame in Indiana, I have become quite familiar with our neighboring state of Ohio, and have learned the Ohioans are quick to label their state as progressive.  Tonight, their state did little to live up to that description, and instead chose to nominate a candidate whom we can fully expect to engage in the same backhanded politics that have become the norm in Washington these days.  That's hardly progressive, at least in terms of the widely accepted definition of the word.  Senator Clinton's triumphs on Tuesday essentially ended the Barack Obama honeymoon, which raises the question:  what comes next?  Senator Clinton certainly finds herself with a "math problem," as so aptly stated by Jonathan Alter on newsweek.com yesterday.  However, it is an undeniable fact that the Clintons are dangerous in a close race, particularly since they seem to have the superdelegates in their collective pocket.  As I overheard on "The Situation Room" before, you don't want to get in a knife fight with the Clintons behind closed doors (such as those of the Democratic National Convention).  I will admit that this possibility scares me, since as long as Clintons keep sending Chelsea to breakfast with superdelegates, they will always have their support.  America's mystique with the Clintons is puzzling and counterproductive.  For a nation that badly wants change, we seem to fear it at the same time.  We see the possible opportunity for change and yet discard it and accept what we already have.  Between the reluctance of the American people-which was accurately displayed in Ohio and Texas tonight-and the overwhelmingly pro-Clinton nature of the superdelegates, things could get difficult for Senator Obama in a prolonged race.  He must remain confident, because, speaking strictly in terms of number of delegates won, he still holds a clear and insurmountable advantage.  However, tonight certainly made things interesting.