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On the campaign trail, all three networks pondered the question of whether the primary season should end yet. "It is like a good movie that lasted about a half hour too long," suggested Barack Obama. "I like long movies," Hillary Rodham Clinton replied.
Obama's endorsement by Bob Casey, the junior senator from Pennsylvania, "could help him make inroads among blue collar white votes," ABC's David Wright speculated. Obama "is pushing hard" in the Keystone State, outspending his rival by two-to-one. NBC's Andrea Mitchell checked back to 1992 and suggested that the Carey nod "could be the result of a family feud." Back then Bill Clinton would not let Casey's father, the Governor of Pennsylvania, address the Democratic National Convention "because he opposed abortion rights."
As for the calls for Rodham Clinton to drop out of the race, ABC's Wright reported husband Bill's response: "A bunch of bull." And ABC's George Stephanopoulos commented that those calls by Pat Leahy and Christopher Dodd had not made Obama's aides "all that happy." Such demands "have the potential to backfire" especially with women voters "who want Hillary to hang in there." Officially, the Democratic Party is in no immediate rush. CBS' Chip Reid repeated a soundbite by Chairman Howard Dean on his network's Early Show that called for superdelegates to make up their minds within three months, by the end of June.
If Obama were to win in Pennsylvania on April 22nd or even make "a respectable showing" ABC's Wright suggested that might seal the nomination for him. CBS' Jeff Greenfield was skeptical. He reminded us of hints of contest-ending Obama surges in other states during the primary season--Cal, NJ, Mass, Ohio, Texas--all of which Rodham Clinton successfully stifled: "Making the sale has so far eluded Obama." ABC's Stephanopoulos agreed. For Obama, winning Pennsylvania is "an uphill climb."
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