Sen. Barack Obama’s 10-point loss in Pennsylvania turned the universe upside down in a few hours. Suddenly, he was no longer his party’s front-runner. Suddenly, he was facing questions about his candidacy in the general election. Suddenly, and rather remarkably Internet pop-up windows, of all things, shifted from “should Hillary quit†surveys to, “can Hillary stop him?â€
The horse race metaphor describing the Democratic nomination is only half the picture. There’s another side to what is happening right now. And it’s more like a tornado than a horse race.
Democrats are competing in states they’d otherwise never visit. They are building organizations. Can you imagine Indiana in the blue column this November? How about Virginia or Colorado or Missouri? The Democratic primary has gone sweeping through these states, and could very well leave a center-left footprint on the landscape.
What thousands of new voters in Pennsylvania reinforce is a new breath of life across the American electorate. It’s a momentum of its own, and it is favoring Democrats.