I gotta tell ya, I am simply thrilled and amazed about what happened last night in Texas. Early in the day, I had a feeling Hillary Clinton might pull out an upset…but it was a very cautious optimism. (After all, in 2004, I was sure Americans wouldn't even come close to letting George W. Bush stay in office. Stupid Americans!) Until very recently (like the previous day?), polls showed Obama ahead in Ohio and Texas. At the last minute, Hillary pulled ahead in Ohio. But Texas was still looking like it would go to the first-term Illinois Senator with the basket of speeches and dreams.
When I tuned into the coverage, I planned to turn it off and start reading a book. But it didn't work out that way. And as much as I thought I could fight it, Hillary Clinton election coverage is like cashews. I am addicted.
I was pleased to see Hillary had won Ohio. She also won Rhode Island but for some reason, that just didn't matter to me. (Just like it didn't matter that Obama had won Vermont.)
As I'm sure you know, Obama had won the last dozen contests so everyone was writing Hillary off. They thought she wouldn't win any of the primaries yesterday. I knew she would win at least Ohio and I was happy about that. As I watched the returns, I figured she can move on from there: She's won two of the four contests and Texas was going to be very close!
Every sixty seconds or so, the Texas numbers would be flashed on the lower left corner of the screen. My eyes would fly to that little corner, desperately scrambling for something to change. But every time it changed, Obama still had a lead of around 2,000 votes.
John King was telling Wolf Blitzer why Obama's doing better than Clinton: Although she was winning what appeared on the map to be an insurmountable majority of the counties, he was winning in the hugely populated ones.
Having won Ohio, and wanting to address the nation before East Coast viewers went to sleep, Clinton came out and addressed the crowd. It was an electrifying speech which is no surprise because she's very good at that.
Shortly afterward, Obama came out and gave what appeared on TV to be a much more subdued missive. And maybe it's just me but it felt like his façade had begun slipping. Everyone knows he's all about speeches and words and giving hope without substance. This time was no different…except that it seemed really obvious. Suddenly, I felt like he wasn't fooling as many people anymore. Or maybe he was just depressed because after 12 wins, on this night, he'd only own Vermont and Texas was slipping away.
I really wanted to go to sleep after the candidates addressed supporters but I just couldn't. Texas was going down to the wire. I wouldn't be able to sleep. So I kept watching. And as more results came in, Clinton started closing the gap. Suddenly, Blitzer and Co. shifted their rhetoric to a "What if?" scenario. And a few minutes later, things changed again. Clinton surpassed Obama. His 2,000 vote cushion had turned into a few hundred vote cushion for her.
King was quick to warn Wolf—and the viewers—that Obama can wipe her lead away by simply maintaining his majorities being reported in those heavily populated counties. He was winning them by 60% and 70% margins and the results were still rolling in. We'd better not change the channel! We'd better not go to sleep!
For as many times as King repeated the threat, it just wouldn't come true. Clinton's edge kept expanding. She had a 20,000 vote lead, then 30,000. For a long time, it was 50,000 and then it grew to 60,000. Then 70,000. And then 80,000. I started wondering how Obama could possibly close such a gap even if those populated counties stayed in his column. Turns out he couldn't.
With 75% of the precincts reporting, CNN went to commercial. I flipped to FOX News (some of their pundits were actually less annoying than that eyebrow guy on CNN who just whines and cries all night about how much he loves Obama)—and before my very eyes, they called Texas for Clinton. Like any clear-thinking American, I don't trust FOX News as far as I can throw my television so I flipped back to CNN and waited for them to come back from the break. When they did, their first order of business was projecting Texas for Clinton.
I stayed up a little while longer to see what that annoying Obama guy would say. He had been saying "the Clintons" move to goal post all the time—and that's pretty much what he did after Texas slipped into Hillary's column. I wish I could remember the guy's name because I'd love to publicly tear him apart…but I can't remember it. And I am unable to find him on the Internet. Apparently, he's a total no one who simply has a hard-on for Barack Obama.
In the end (well, near the end—99% of precincts have reported), Clinton won Texas by 98,223 votes. It's "on to Pennsylvania!" And then? The White House, of course.
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