She's Still Doing It

Asking Democrats to vote for her in the primary while already writing-off the state for November. She's reminding me of the HRC staffer telling me Texas is a lost cause as they ask me to make a donation.

From DailyKos:

Clinton:

I’d love to carry Texas, but it’s usually not in the electoral calculation for the Democratic nominee. Florida and Michigan are.

Of all the Clinton mistakes this cycle (and both sides have had plenty of them), this is the one that rankles the most. And really, it's been such a stupid and counterproductive narrative that I can't, for the life of me, fathom why they persist in using it.

Like every other state, Texas will feature more than just the presidential contest. As Texas political expert Paul Burka writes after analyzing the astonishing early turnout numbers (follow the link, you won't be disappointed):

These numbers have made me a believer. Rick Noriega could defeat John Cornyn. The Democrats can win a majority in the Texas House of Representatives. The consummate irony is that George W. Bush, who made Texas a Republican state on his way in to the presidency, may make it a Democratic state on his way out.

Sure, but only because we are likely to have a nominee that sees the value in building a 50-state party, rather than Clinton's repeated efforts to denigrate and minimize 2/3rds of the country.

With a Clinton nomination, Texas doesn't matter because it's not in her "electoral calculation". No one is suggesting Obama could win Texas, but his ground game plus the excitement he's generating across party lines could very well mean the difference between Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Rick Noriega in 2009.

No less astute a political observer than Texas Monthly's Paul Burka summed it up quite well:

Veteran political observers like me can roll our eyes over someone running for president on a platform of "Hope" and "Change," but nothing is so powerful as an idea, even a vague one, whose time has come. Obama is riding the whirlwind, and if he can make the moment last until November, it is going to sweep out the Republicans, even in Texas.

Emphasis mine. I made the same comment to a friend's post yesterday.