Michael Tomasky, editor of Guardian America, supplied the title of this blog item. Tomasky has this to say about Clinton’s victory over Obama in Nevada yesterday:[Bill Clinton] campaigned against a fellow Democrat no differently than if Obama had been Newt Gingrich. The Clinton campaign may conclude that, numerically and on balance, Bill helped. But, trust me, to the thousands of committed progressives who supported him when he really needed it, who went to the mat for him at his moment of (largely self-inflicted) crisis but who now happen to be supporting someone other than his wife, he's done himself a tremendous amount of damage.
The final price of victory is the splintering of base Democratic voters. African Americans solidified behind Obama, 79-18%. Hispanics, behind Clinton, 64-23%. Young voters went heavily for Obama. Old voters heavily for Clinton. These divisions threaten to flower into schisms. There will be plenty of time to put the pieces back together. But. . .
Clinton’s winning coalition of women, Hispanics, and elderly also includes white males, who have—since race entered the campaign—coalesced behind Clinton/against Obama.
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