Democratic Nomination

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama moved closer to locking up the Democratic nomination yesterday, taking the North Carolina primary decisively while Hillary Clinton eked out a victory in Indiana. Obama widened his delegate lead on the biggest day left on the primary calendar, though it appeared that the race could still continue through the final contests, less than four weeks from now. Obama claimed victory in North Carolina and congratulated Clinton on apparently winning Indiana, where incomplete returns gave her a narrow lead.

WASHINGTON -- Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone's decision not to seek the Democratic presidential nomination does not quite rise to the level of bombshell news. The scrappy liberal of the old school always seemed at best the longest of long shots. But his candidacy would have contributed a worthwhile dimension to the 2000 race, if only as a voice of conscience prodding others in his party.Mr. Wellstone's politics obviously are a throwback to New Deal days whose vigorous espousal of activist government has been brushed aside by the New Democrat positioning of President Clinton.

ClevelandPRESIDENT BUSH'S health problem is a forceful reminder that politics is not a scientific exercise. There are too many variables.At this point, no one can know how the president's medical problem will affect, if at all, his plans for a second term. But the political lesson is already clear: The equation can change overnight.It is a lesson the Democrats should take seriously before they throw in the towel on the 1992 presidential campaign, as so many of them seem willing to do as they read the Bush approval ratings in the opinion polls.

WASHINGTON-- West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller has announced that he will not seek the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1992, provoking more gloomy talk about the abysmal decline of the Democratic Party.Some people who thought the Rockefeller name, Jay's big money, his middle-of-the road respectability, would lift the Democrats out of doldrums in which party leaders seem to be conceding President Bush four more years in the White House.But Mr. Rockefeller faced some stark realities.

WASHINGTON -- Even for those who have grown accustomed to grotesque numbers in politics, the $34 million Jon S. Corzine is spending to win a Democratic nomination for the Senate in New Jersey seems a little outlandish. It is, as you may have guessed, the new record for a Senate campaign, passing the $30 million mark established by Michael Huffington in a California campaign six years ago. But Mr. Corzine has accomplished this feat just competing in the primary Tuesday. Mr. Huffington frittered his money away in both capturing the Republican nomination in a primary and then losing the general election to Democrat Dianne Feinstein.

The feminist-baiting males in my life are asking, with barely contained glee, if I am sad that Hillary Clinton didn't win the Democratic nomination for president. They assume I wanted a female nominee. No, I tell them, I wanted an electable nominee. And she was it. It seems strange to say this now. I used to think that Hillary was the most unelectable of the Democratic contenders. Too much Clinton baggage, even for me. I didn't know if I could hold my breath for four years, waiting for Bill to misbehave.

The big-state primaries in Ohio and Texas are less than a week away, yet Sen. Hillary Clinton has already forfeited. Oh, she's still running against fellow Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination - harder and nastier than ever, in fact. But through a long and growing list of blunders, slights and nefarious maneuvers, Mrs. Clinton has forfeited her right to any remaining benefit of the doubt from Democratic voters. She forfeited her "readiness to lead" image when she had to reluctantly and belatedly fire Patti Solis Doyle because the Clinton campaign manager's leadership style created a dysfunctional atmosphere for top staffers.

Del. Elijah E. Cummings, the four-term legislator from West Baltimore, was the winner in yesterday's free-for-all Democratic primary to replace Kweisi Mfume as Maryland's 7th District representative in Congress.With all precincts reporting, Mr. Cummings led the field of 27 Democrats with 37 percent of the vote.In what amounted to a two-man race for the Democratic nomination, the Rev. Frank M. Reid III ran second with about 24 percent of the vote. Dr. Reid is the powerful pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's stepbrother.

An election is the means by which a self-governing people is supposed to express its will, but in the presidential election of 1992, this is plainly not happening. The people are obscuring their will. They are hiding.A few statistics make the point. Forty-seven percent of registered voters in New York State are Democrats. The turnout in the Democratic primary was 27 percent. Of these, 41 percent voted for the winner, Bill Clinton.However, Voter Research and Surveys has reported that among those voting, only three in 10 actually favored any candidate.

WASHINGTON -- The Democratic Leadership Council meeting here this week has some reason to feel a little smug. One of its former chairmen is president of the United States and he has just made a political leap forward by defying one of the Democratic Party's most important liberal constituencies, organized labor, on the North American Free Trade Agreement.But anyone who believes President Clinton can enjoy long-term political success -- meaning re-election in 1996 -- by relying on the conservative Democrats of the DLC and alienating his party's base has only to study the experience of former President George Bush.