Okay, I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but I wouldn’t put myself in the “dummy” category either. So am I missing something when I hear Hillary Clinton say that she would be the better candidate because she was able to beat Barack Obama in the big states like New York, California, Ohio and Texas?

Her argument is that when it comes to the next election, if Obama couldn’t carry those states, the Republicans would kick his ass if he was the one representing the Democratic Party.

When she makes a statement like that, she wants us to believe that if Obama, not her, gets the nod, those Dems who voted for her in those states will stay home and not one of those votes will go to Obama. Does she really believe that Americans are stupid?

Let’s take a look at the numbers. In those states I listed above, Clinton got roughly six million votes as compared to Obama’s approximately four-and-a-half million. In the rest of the country so far, Obama has roughly nine million to Clinton’s seven million. Looks to me like Obama overall is ahead by about a half million.

All it means is that not only will Obama get those voters who already support him, he will get a huge majority of those Hillary supporters, which in effect, will make him a very formidable opponent to John McCain come November.

The same would be true if Hillary won the nomination. She would pick up most of the Obama supporters. Sure, there will be some diehard supporters of both candidates who will refuse to vote for either one if their candidate doesn’t get the nominated, but the numbers will be insignificant.

The real question come November is: Who in the Democratic Party will be the strongest candidate to win the general election? I personally feel that either Obama or Clinton will be able to beat McCain, not because either is better for the job as our next President, but simply because the American public really does want change and are blaming our country’s major woes — a poor economy and a continuing unpopular war — on Bush, who as we all know, is a Republican.

I’m sure our enemies throughout the world are hoping for a Democrat to win, feeling neither Obama nor Clinton will be anywhere near as tough dealing with them as McCain would be. But voters, I think, will be looking at the much larger picture — who will be best for all the issues, not only the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that America will be facing over the next four years.

So far, the majority are leaning in the direction of Barack Obama — a relatively unkown, untested candidate who has been able to energize the Democratic Party with his call for change and a new direction. Something this country desperately needs.