During my vacation last week, every time I put the TV on in my hotel room, I came across yet another lame excuse, counter-factual argument and shifting of the goal post by Hillary and Bill Clinton and their desperate handymen explaining that Barack Obama cannot win the general election in November and therefore he should not win the party's nomination in June. Using convoluted logic and outright lies, voters and Democratic Party super delegates are being urged and badgered by the Clintonites to support Hillary, the losing candidate in the Democratic primaries. What they are not able to explain is if indeed Obama is unelectable, why he is winning against a name brand, fat cat, dynasty candidate like Hillary Clinton. The subtext of the Clinton message has now devolved into an unsubtle and unmistakable race-gender argument - Obama cannot win because older women, the white working class and ethnic voters like Asians and Latinos won't vote for him.
"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."
"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.
The Clintons are so desperate now that their most loud mouthed hack James Carville has even suggested that Obama lacks the requisite masculinity to become president. (Someone ought to tell the Clintonistas that one of the many reasons why Hillary may be losing is her alarming machismo regarding Iraq, Iran and national security) So the slash, burn and poison tactics of the Clinton camp geared toward somehow grabbing the nomination (it's no longer the inevitable "coronation" that the Clintons had smugly foreseen) are on full display. Let's remember this spectacle in case Hillary Clinton finds an opening to run again in 2012. Some Democrats are surprised, some terrified ... and yet others who had seen the slime attacks coming, are plain disgusted. After Hillary made her racially charged comment about Obama's inability to win white votes there was this telling exchange between Clinton supporter Paul Begala and Donna Brazile, Al Gore's campaign manager and undeclared super delegate:
Begala: "[If] there's a new Democratic Party that somehow doesn't need or want white working-class people and Latinos, well, count me out." And: "We cannot win with eggheads and African Americans."
Brazile: "Paul, baby, we need to not divide and polarize the Democratic Party. . . . So stop the divisions. Stop trying to split us into these groups, Paul, because you and I know . . . how Democrats win, and to simply suggest that Hillary's coalition is better than Obama's, Obama's is better than Hillary's -- no. We have a big party, Paul."
And: "Just don't divide me and tell me I cannot stand in Hillary's camp because I'm black, and I can't stand in Obama's camp because I'm female. Because I'm both. . . . Don't start with me, baby."
Finally: "It's our party, Paul. Don't say my party. It's our party. Because it's time that we bring the party back together, Paul."
Yes, that's what the Clintons have stooped to. They have declared the votes of African Americans, younger and educated Americans as less valuable than those of Hillary loyalists. The logic behind such divisive tactics is clearly intended to damage Obama's candidacy with voters. Yet unless a hitherto unknown scandal erupts and derails Obama's candidacy, Hillary will not win the nomination. We know it, the Democratic Party and its sponsors know it and despite the brave face they are presenting in W. Virginia and Kentucky, Bill and Hillary Clinton know it. No wonder then that from the grouchy ladybug who wants to fight, Hillary is fast on her way to becoming a ticking time bomb!
Bill and Hill have hinted that they will challenge Obama's nomination and stage a protest at the Democratic Party convention in August. But the truth is that Hillary Clinton cannot win by any legitimate rules of the campaign which the Clintons had agreed to and helped design. And the threat of burning down the barn may prove to be an empty bluff. By their shameless defiance and inability to let go of their grasp on power they have alienated voters, influential party leaders and even some erstwhile supporters. By August they may not have enough willing arsonists left on their side to pull off the threats. The Democratic Party will soon become wary of the Clinton tantrums and refuse to pay homage. If all goes as predicted, Obama will be the nominee and he is intelligent enough to not buy into the promise of a "dream Obama-Clinton ticket" which will really be a nightmare for him and the Democratic Party. Hillary's only realistic option to be on a presidential ticket in 2008 may be to run as John McCain's second banana.
Note: The Hillary's Downfall ("ticking time bomb" via 3QD) video contains adult language and Hitler imagery. You don't have to be an Obama supporter to see the point.
For what it's worth, I'm a Republican, and voted for Obama in the state primary (I had to switch my party registration). I plan to vote for him in November. I know many Republicans who are so disgusted by what their party has become that they are also supporting Obama (some openly, some discretely). But I do not know one Republican who will vote for Clinton if she wins. Obama's appeal is not just to Democrats, but to open-minded Republicans as well.
Posted by: anon govt lawyer | May 12, 2008 at 10:17 AM
Anon Govt Lawyer, I am glad to hear of your decision and that other Republicans feel the same way as you do.
This election, or rather the Democratic primaries are proving to be more confounding than the pundits or pollsters will admit. I believe that until the Dems decide to call it a day and settle on a nominee and we have a binary choice between the candidates of the two parties, things won't fall into any clear pattern.
I have friends who have voted all over the place. There are African Americans who were torn between Clinton and Obama at the start of the primaries but are now for Obama and will not vote for Clinton (any Clinton) in the foreseeable future. I know older women who like Obama and want him to win the nomination and the presidency, but they voted for Clinton because as "feminists," they had to vote for a woman. Some of my neighbors, all older white men, have voted for Obama and will vote for him in November. They will not vote for Hillary. Among my Asian acquaintances, the Indian American voters are evenly divided between Obama and Clinton. But the east Asian friends are almost all for Clinton. I also know a few Republicans who gleefully bought into Rush Limbaugh's "chaos theory" and voted for Hillary in the primaries but they will all vote for McCain in November.
So, I have no clue how things will shape up eventually. But I do believe that unless the Dems really screw up, both Hillary and Obama are capable of beating McCain.
Posted by: Ruchira | May 12, 2008 at 11:59 AM
Obama-Clinton would no longer be a dream ticket, more of a nightmare ticket for Obama in particular. At this point, I'm just wishing Hillary would just fade out quietly, but no, that is not the Clinton way! She will have to dragged off the convention stage kicking and screaming into a straitjacket, if the current trend continues.
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