The article did a decent job of discussing the Indiana primary, but its underlying premise about the state’s importance is flawed. In truth, Indiana doesn’t really matter. The only state left that matters is North Carolina. With Obama’s large lead in the pledged delegates, Hillary has to show that Obama has lost support even in the states that are favorable to him demographically. Winning Indiana will only tell us what we already know, that Hillary beats Obama with rural voters and working-class whites. She has to break through with the affluent whites in the NC Triangle and with NC African-Americans to show the Supers that Obama has been irreparably damaged, and would be DOA against McCain. She can’t do that in Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, or even Oregon, which is too white and politically eccentric for an Obama loss to be dispositive there.
North Carolina is truly Hillary’s last chance, if she has any at all.
