I agree with Jim, and I'd go a bit further—this is the latest
example of Barack Obama playing the long game and ignoring the
conventional wisdom du jour.
Cast your mind back to May, after Obama won North Carolina and
basically tied Hillary Clinton in Indiana, closing out her
chances of winning a delegate majority in the primaries. Clinton
responded by pounding the pavement in West Virginia, Kentucky,
Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and Montana. She won four of
these contests, three of them in landslides. Amazingly, it didn't
seem like Obama was trying to win any of the states except for
Oregon, South Dakota, and Montana. He only
campaigned one day in West Virginia. He let South Dakota slip
away even after George McGovern un-endorsed Clinton and endorsed
him. Instead, he started raising money for the general election
and campaigning in swing states like Iowa and Missouri.
Obama took his knocks from reporters and pundits. Hillary
"won the fourth quarter" of the primaries. She got close (or
won, if you count the Michigan sham primary) in the popular vote.
PUMAS were emboldened. Tongues wagged about how Obama "couldn't
close the deal." And yet, in retrospect, Obama was completely
right. He got a head start on organizing for the general
election, which was the only thing he cared about.
I see the same thing here. Martin, let's remember, was never
expected to win this election. He had lost a race for lieutenant
governor in 2006 and was pulled out of mothballs to stop crooked
DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones from winning the Senate nomination
and dragging down the ticket. (It's never a good sign when your
candidate has to answer
rape charges.) Not until the bailout vote did Chambliss start
to slip, and even then I don't think he slipped below Martin in
any poll.
What were Obama's choices here? Either he could stump for Martin
and pull out, maybe, a few more percentage points for him. Martin
would have lost and Obama would have been directly linked to the
loss. It would have been a replay of 1992, when Bill Clinton used
his political capital to try and save Sen. Wyche Fowler in his
runoff against Paul Coverdell. Clinton looked like a fool when
Fowler lost, and it fueled the idea that he only won the election
because of Ross Perot. Senate Republicans, who have so far not
been combative towards Obama, would have been personally
affronted.
Obviously, a Chambliss loss would have been a shocking death blow
to Republican hopes. But Chambliss's survival hasn't altered
Democratic plans at all.
