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This page contains a single entry by Richard Sammon
published on
March 4, 2008 10:26 AM.
Will Women Come Through for Hillary? was the previous entry.
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DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGN
The Case for Clinton to Stay In
Even though Clinton only has only a long-shot hope of winning the nomination because of the delegates being amassed by Obama, her presence and ever sharper pressure points -- in debates and on the campaign trail -- have and will force Obama to be a better, more defined candidate. And it will bring the more complete vetting that he needs before it's too late for the party to reconsider.
That's already happening. Clinton is finally landing some blows, and the press is taking a second look at the candidate in ways that are good for everyone involved. New questions are arising every day, and some really need to be answered. Just look at his denial that his campaign assured Canada he wasn't serious about rewriting NAFTA, a denial that earned him two Pinocchios from the Washington Post.
A unified party early on may look good for the Democrats, but perhaps it's not the best thing for the country -- or Obama. The Illinois senator, whose lack of national experience raises a constant question mark about his presidential credentials, will become more of a known quantity if Clinton keeps at it, forcing him to deliver specifics on his plans and his foreign policy agenda. Her continuing challenge to him may also reveal weak spots in his armor that are better explored sooner than later. And clearly the press is just getting started at asking some hard questions that were put off too long.
That's not to say Clinton should stay in no matter what. A loss in Texas or Ohio and a narrow victory in the other should send a sharp enough message that her time has come. Let's see what happens tonight. But if Clinton does fold her tent, Obama will have less reason to change his lofty rhetoric that is short on specifics. John McCain, who'll clinch the GOP nomination tonight, will increase his attacks immediately, but that's not the same as the pressure generated by an immediate fight for the nomination.
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With all due respect, one wonders if you haven't been watching too many Disney movies where the music swells at the end and the hero and heroine go riding off into the sunset on matching white steeds. Absolutely no good whatsoever can can come to the Democratic Party from an extended fight for the nomination. Already the Clinton campaign has gratuitously provided the Republicans with enough anti-Obama "sound bites" that they can save zillions on their advertising in the general election should Obama wind up with the nomination. Even more deleterious to the Dems, however, is that if Clinton somehow manages to get the nomination through super-delegates or even Michigan and Florida primary votes, the thousands of new young voters who've turned out to support Obama, not to mention the African Americans who'll feel disenfranchised, will NOT be in the voting booth come November to help out a ticket with HRC (Her Royal Clintoness) at its top.
It truly is tragic - I mean that with the greatest sincerity - that Richard Sammon and millions of other Clinton supporters still believe any of this. The long-running contest - which if it doesn't end this week promises to go on until Denver in August - has already begun to damage the Democratic party irreperably - yes, irreperably. Whether Obama or Clinton ultimately wins the nomination, the damage done until now, combined with the damage that promises to be done between now and August, will destroy either candidate's chances of winning in November.
I used to say that, although I had my preferred candidate, I found each of Edwards, Clinton and Obama to be acceptable candidates for the nomination. If Hillary had emerged with a string of 11 victories and a 150 delegate lead, I would have acquiesced in her nomination. But she didn't. For the level-headed among us, the clean race ended in Wisconsin. Everything that has happened since Wisconsin and that will happen from now on will destroy both candidates AND will destroy the Democratic party's chance for victory.
The notion that the current process of Obama-cleansing is part of some "vetting" process - baptism by fire - is what we down here in Texas call "bull". It is true, Clinton has been vetted. And it shows, the scar tissue of her "vettings" lingers in her unwavering position in national opinion polls and general election polls as a visceral resistence by a fixed portion of the population to all things "Clinton."
And now Sammon thinks Obama needs to be vetted - scarred - the way Clinton has, as if "vetting" were like a buffing of car wax to make him more shiny.
This cannot end well for Obama if he doesn't wrap things up this week. He may not recover from this "vetting." He may hold on to the nomination in Denver - bloodied and scarred by months of constant Clinton attacks. But he will have 8 weeks in which to rebuild the unified party against the GOP, and Clinton will have done the GOP's swiftboating work for them - all in the name of "vetting".
On the other hand, Clinton may emerge victorious after all - and for what? She will have killed the rising star of a new generation of Democratic politics - no one recovers from the sort of "vetting" Clinton and the GOP are prepared to unleash. She will have torn the party asunder. She will have killed "hope." And she will have 8 short weeks to move the ossified public opinion of her from a low 40% to above 50% - an impossible task. (on that note, I have never EVER heard a coherent and persuasive argument from any Clinton supporters about how she intends to win the general election in November. She needs at least 270 electoral votes - what is her trick? Ohio or Florida, where polls show McCain crushing her handily?)
So this is the way it will end, and this is why, if the Democrats don't wake up soon, McCain will be president. McCain can be defeated, true, but not if we continue this internal "vetting" process until August.
For the sake of the party, please end this now.
Vote for your second choice - Obama, because a vote for Clinton is a vote for a war of attrition that cannot end well.
President Bill Clinton did not seal the nomination until June. What is the obsession with some folks with ending this Primary SEASON asap? It's a season not a fortnight.
Frankly, I have a lot more confidence in a candidate that wins consistently in the big states, which tells me of her success in the General Election. I discount the caucus state votes this year, because they bear no resemblance to a fair vote anymore. With all of the reports out of Texas from last night's caucus misdeeds, I can't trust any of them.
Hillary Clinton is staying in, and she's fighting. As she should.