'It's the Economy, Stupid!'

This was the motto of President Bill Clinton's successful campaign in 1992. The President's chief strategist James Carville put up these words all over his war room and had his campaign staff dwell on the poor state of the economy and drove home the fact that the incumbent President George H.W. Bush was out of touch with the reality and his administration needed to go. As Wolf Blitzer rightly pointed out last week in this election year we will hear the echoes of 1992 a lot.

The economy has always been a pivotal factor in deciding elections and 2008 will be no different. We are a nation at war but no doubt, the state of the economy will be the issue # 1.

Sen. Bob Dole, the Republican Presidential nominee in 1996 told Larry King that he received a letter from former President Richard Nixon that said that if the economy continues to be good there is no chance for him to win the election. Similarly, I wish someone writes a letter to Sen. John McCain and tells him that if the economy continues to be bad it will be really difficult for him to win.

Obviously, the Democrats will have to first pick a nominee and once they do that they will simply have to employ the same strategy as they did in 1992. They will need to solely focus on the issue # 1 and beat up the Republicans real hard by getting deep into the nuances of the same.

I can guarantee you that there is no chance of beating Sen. McCain on the issues of national security or terrorism. His inexperience and apprehensiveness to talk about the economy is apparent. At every given opportunity he continues to talk only about Iraq, national security and foreign policy. Till date he has not given a single policy speech or offered real solutions to solve the current economic mess at home.

To me it appears that the issue # 1 could be his Achillies heel and perhaps the GOP's Waterloo.

Electability is the mantra

It's not the economy; not national security; not healthcare - it has to be the issue of Electability that will give Senator Hillary Clinton any chance of clinching the Democratic Presidential nomination.

To start with, we must come to terms with certain facts here. Firstly, the chances of seating the delegates from Florida and Michigan in the convention are very slim. Secondly, Sen. Obama is way ahead in both pledged delegates and popular votes. Though, Sen. Clinton can narrow the lead with wins in states like Pennsylvania and North Carolina there is almost no chance for her to overtake him. And, finally, CNN's magic board and other sources show us that no candiate can clinch the magic number with pledged delegates alone and the super delegates will have to step in to put an end to this contest and pick a winner.

As of now Sen. Clinton still leads in super delegates but with each passing day more and more of these super delgates are either switching over to Obama's side or committing their support to him. So Sen. Clinton has her task cut out - she needs to get more uncommited super delegates to commit to her and ensure her supporters continue to stay the course with her.

The only way she can do this is by making Democrats (primary voters and super delegates) believe that she is a better candidate to take on Sen. John McCain and also beat him in the general elections for I would assume that irrespective of what happens in the primary season the sole aim of every Democrat in this land will be to capture the White House in November and prevent four more years of republican rule. Infact, I recently learnt that the Democratic party came up with the idea of super delegates in the late eighties with this very notion of 'electability' in mind. The role and mission of these super delegates is to pick the candidate who is most likely to beat the Republican rival in the general elections.

With all this math and other background information at hand I'm very surprised and quite disappointed to note that the candidates are not raking up the electablity issue enough. I've perhaps heard that word a couple of times during press conferences and that too only when pressed by reporters. But, going forward, I will expect to hear more of it in their campaign speeches and town hall meetings.

Especially, Sen. Clinton needs to spend more time in explaining why she can survive the Republican attack machine better and has the upper-hand in a potential match-up with Sen. McCain. Each time she speaks she must realize that she is making a direct pitch to all the uncommitted super delegates and swing Democratic primary voters out there. By now, most Americans know her positions on various issues and also how her stand differs from that of Sen. Obama on these issues. So, now they just have to be convinced that she is the party's best hope and has the greatest chance of beating Sen. John McCain in order to reclaim the Presidency.

'Electability' - I will paint this all over the walls of Sen. Hillary Clinton's war room!