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player ready...David Axelrod, Sen. Barack Obama advisor, at Oct. 2, 2007 speech by his candidate. baiduhai photo by Michael Tercha.
by Christi Parsons
Barack Obama strategist David Axelrod isn’t worried about the developing story line that casts Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York as the presumptive Democratic nominee for the White House next year.
“I’m not too worried,” says Axelrod. “The roadsides of Iowa and New Hampshire are strewn with the spent political carcasses of September and October front-runners.”
The image doesn’t exactly work, under a strict interpretation of the word “carcass.” Historically, most dominant front-runners have usually managed to go on and win the party nomination, including those who had to scrape themselves off the pavement after a loss in an early voting state.
But there are still plenty of historical reasons not to call the race just yet.