Blood in the Water

I guess I was prescient last night. Nothing signals wheel trouble like firing a campaign manager in the heat of a campaign.

As a scorching 19-point landslide victory for Obama over Clinton in the Maine caucus unfolded today (59% to 40%), out come the news that longtime Hillary confidante Patty Solis Doyle had been replaced by longtime Hillary confidante Maggie Williams. Perhaps Ms. Williams, an African-American woman, has some skills to help the Clinton campaign recover and win Ohio and/or Texas but, once again, Barack Obama's campaign is one step ahead.

With Obama openly touting his poll advantage over John McCain, Clinton, openly touting having won in all different regions of the country, and possibly coming out of this Tuesday's Maryland, D.C. and Virginia contests with more victories, he's putting together a string that started with more states than her last Tuesday, an ensuing seven-state string (eight if you count the Virgin Islands).

The game change now is that the Clinton campaign is looking a lot like the Edwards campaign two weeks ago: Losers.

Obama the sports fan knows that the stink of a loser is the worst part of losing, the hardest to shake, the Kryptonite that drives away potential supporters and makes fans have second thoughts.

No one wants to be associated with losers for very long, hence the question of whether Edwards will come out for Obama or Clinton this week -- does he think he can turn the tide for her, or is he just finally sick of being on the losing end, whether John Kerry's campaign or his own.

What else happens when the loser tag is applied? Everything seems to underline the loserdom:

The announcement of Ms. Solis Doyle’s replacement came minutes after Mrs. Clinton was grounded by what her campaign said were high winds at Dulles Airport. After arriving at the airport for a charter flight to Roanoke, Mrs. Clinton, her staff and the traveling press corps were not allowed to board the plane.

A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton said high winds at the airport had forced “a number of planes” to be kept on the ground, and that some planes that had taken off today had suffered structural damage. (Other planes at the airport were taking off as Mrs. Clinton’s motorcade drove away, en route to Washington.)

This is not to say that Sen. Clinton and Ms. Williams won't end up the new "comeback kid", or that she doesn't have a dozen over or underhanded means to flip the tide. But at a certain point, to again quote Cormac McCarthy, you can't stop what's coming.

Dems want a winner more than anything else. More than a restoration. If Hillary Clinton can't run a winning campaign, or one that foresees challenges and challengers, that chooses the right strategy to win and shows a little originality in doing so, how on God's earth is she a remotely safe choice to lead the most powerful nation on earth and keep us safe?

But Obama is proving it. I want to see him up against Putin. I want to see him handling Chavez. I want to watch him to fire up this country and make us feel like a nation of winners again, regardless of Party affiliation.

And if the string of electoral victories weren't enough, he just beat Hillary's husband Bill for the Grammy Award.

And no, you can't make this stuff up!