Expectations Game Crucial as Candidates Set to Split Primaries

CNN is predicting that Senator Barack Obama will win the North Carolina Democratic primary. Meanwhile, it is too early to call Indiana because not enough results are in from key areas. Obama will pick up the larger share of the Tar Heel State’s 115 delegates. With 46 percent of Indiana precincts reporting, Clinton is leading Obama 55-45 percent. So the expectations game will be crucial here because it certainly looks like the candidates will split the primaries. And now the question becomes, OK, who will win as a result of the the split and will both of them trying to downplay it. I think Obama will come out as the clear winner if he wins by 15-20 points or more in North Carolina. Clinton has been talking about how Obama was always expected to win Indiana. That is exactly the opposite. He was expected to lose until very recently when he started to close there. But this could also end up as a status quo when all the dust clears. Stay tuned.