Politics / Barack Obama Is Barack on the Rocks? Punditry ponders electability gaps, buyer's remorse, next moves for Obama By Jonas Oransky, Newser Staff Posted Apr 23, 2008 2:19 PM CDT Copied Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., waves to media members on her campaign plane. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) How bad is the Pennsylvania result for Team Obama and what does it mean going forward? Three writers think it through: “He can’t finish her off,” says Dan Kennedy in the Guardian. Obama scooped up presumptive-nominee status too soon, and now Americans have “buyer’s remorse”—realizing Clinton is the scrappier fighter. But it’s probably too late to tap the former first lady. More weaknesses in the Obama argument keep presenting themselves, sighs John Judis in the New Republic. His base looks ever more like George McGovern’s—as the candidate, formerly seen as middle-of-the-road, looks increasingly leftist. More working-class tests await in Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia. Walter Shapiro notes in Salon that despite the incessant campaigning, demographic groups keep performing as initially expected. The longer Obama goes without a big victory, the less inevitable he looks. (More Barack Obama stories.) Report an error