Some people aren't too proud to beg SDs. But I am.
Let me first state - I do not believe that a mad rush of Super Delegates back to Clinton is brewing. Nor do I think it will happen. There are reports tonight that 8 Obama SD's would, given the chance, switch and vote for Clinton in Denver. This is possible and I admire the relentless work being done by PUMAs to salvage some sanity in the Democratic Party.
BUT
after May 31st their is no sanity in that political party. The very last scrap of the party of FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, and Clinton was thrown to the wind on May 31st. By force, the Hart, McGovern, Dean - and now Obama wing of the party seized control. They did what limousine leftists always do once they have power: expelled all detractors.
Expulsion is the name of the game. Ensuring that Clinton is not put into nomination is a part of the expulsion process. They have a real, tangible fear - based in reality thus far - that 6 weeks from now Obama will look like a dud on the national stage. The DNC - now run by the rich liberal wing - feels it MUST make absolutely certain that Obama is acclaimed the nominee without a contested vote - like Gore in 2000. Dean and Brazile have rebuilt the party on a toothpick sculpture foundation. They know it. Neither of their psychologies, for differnet reasons, can admit mistakes. Their ego investment in Obama is too great to allow a different outcome from the one they pre planned. But they also know they have problems.
Put it more bluntly: As much as I admire the PUMAs outreach to SDs - Dean and Brazile saw to it that a person who took his own name off the ballot in a large Blue state nevertheless got 40% of that state's delegation. It was an outrageous move. Being outrageous is not a problem for them - it's a strategy. Removing Hillary's name from the nominating ballot in Denver goes with the amoral turf these people tread. It is outrageous, and unprecedented, and they'll do it.
Don't mean to be a downer - but I am in the EX-Democrat camp now. These people are not my people anymore. Thanks be to God. The only way to salvage the Democratic Party is to defeat Obama in the fall, put Dean and Brazile in a stockade on the Washington mall and let us pummel them with tomatoes for a week - then move on - re-seize the party and remake it as the pro-Labor, moderate-left alternative. If Obama wins then this will happen in 2010 - which after 2 years of Reid,Pelosi, Obama - will be a realigning election. To the Right.
The Democratic party will not be saved this year. I hope I am wrong. But Obama would have to "be caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy", as the saying goes, for the DEM power elites to allow a Clinton nomination. That speech at the football stadium by Obama on the anniversary MLK's speech in D.C. has been set in stone on Dean's calender for years now.
(This is a self serving, odd, and insular move as well - Who does the DNC think this anniversary is going to impress? Whose votes is it going to add? Is it supposed to bookend some American epoch? Again: rich white liberals are so absorbed in their self congratulatory narrative about Obama's race that they believe this narrative has much more power with the rest of us than it actually does. If anything BHO horning in on MLK rubs my liberal soul the wrong way. - Can anyone imagine Obama penning A Letter From a Birmingham Jail? Ha! Rezko would have posted bail and he would have switched sides the next day.)
By the by - Lynne and I worked on the 1984 McGovern campaign in Mass and N.H. A tale of happy memories and frozen toes could be told by both of us. But that is for later...
The people listed below were all put into nomination that year. Susan Estrich put Senator McGovern's name in the ring. I remember it well. We loved George then. Also I see her walking her dogs sometimes - always want to introduce myself - but all I can think to say is "what the hell was WRONG with Dukakis??? - a campaign she later managed -
At any rate, as you can see Democrats always put all contenders in nomination - except in "acclimation" years - in which case the nominee's lead is so overwhelming the show of unity becomes the tantamount concern. Mr. Obama does not have an overwhelming lead this year. In fact, he does not have enough pledged delegates to win. So an obscene insult to Hillary is preferable to risking super delegate accountability.
Walter Mondale - 2,191 (56.41%)
Gary Hart - 1,201 (30.92%)
Jesse Jackson - 466 (12.00%)
Thomas Eagleton - 18 (0.46%)
George McGovern - 4 (0.10%)
John Glenn - 2 (0.05%)
Joe Biden - 1 (0.03%)
Martha Kirkland - 1 (0.03%)
Who is Martha Kirkland? And who was her delegate???
BUT
after May 31st their is no sanity in that political party. The very last scrap of the party of FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, and Clinton was thrown to the wind on May 31st. By force, the Hart, McGovern, Dean - and now Obama wing of the party seized control. They did what limousine leftists always do once they have power: expelled all detractors.
Expulsion is the name of the game. Ensuring that Clinton is not put into nomination is a part of the expulsion process. They have a real, tangible fear - based in reality thus far - that 6 weeks from now Obama will look like a dud on the national stage. The DNC - now run by the rich liberal wing - feels it MUST make absolutely certain that Obama is acclaimed the nominee without a contested vote - like Gore in 2000. Dean and Brazile have rebuilt the party on a toothpick sculpture foundation. They know it. Neither of their psychologies, for differnet reasons, can admit mistakes. Their ego investment in Obama is too great to allow a different outcome from the one they pre planned. But they also know they have problems.
Put it more bluntly: As much as I admire the PUMAs outreach to SDs - Dean and Brazile saw to it that a person who took his own name off the ballot in a large Blue state nevertheless got 40% of that state's delegation. It was an outrageous move. Being outrageous is not a problem for them - it's a strategy. Removing Hillary's name from the nominating ballot in Denver goes with the amoral turf these people tread. It is outrageous, and unprecedented, and they'll do it.
Don't mean to be a downer - but I am in the EX-Democrat camp now. These people are not my people anymore. Thanks be to God. The only way to salvage the Democratic Party is to defeat Obama in the fall, put Dean and Brazile in a stockade on the Washington mall and let us pummel them with tomatoes for a week - then move on - re-seize the party and remake it as the pro-Labor, moderate-left alternative. If Obama wins then this will happen in 2010 - which after 2 years of Reid,Pelosi, Obama - will be a realigning election. To the Right.
The Democratic party will not be saved this year. I hope I am wrong. But Obama would have to "be caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy", as the saying goes, for the DEM power elites to allow a Clinton nomination. That speech at the football stadium by Obama on the anniversary MLK's speech in D.C. has been set in stone on Dean's calender for years now.
(This is a self serving, odd, and insular move as well - Who does the DNC think this anniversary is going to impress? Whose votes is it going to add? Is it supposed to bookend some American epoch? Again: rich white liberals are so absorbed in their self congratulatory narrative about Obama's race that they believe this narrative has much more power with the rest of us than it actually does. If anything BHO horning in on MLK rubs my liberal soul the wrong way. - Can anyone imagine Obama penning A Letter From a Birmingham Jail? Ha! Rezko would have posted bail and he would have switched sides the next day.)
By the by - Lynne and I worked on the 1984 McGovern campaign in Mass and N.H. A tale of happy memories and frozen toes could be told by both of us. But that is for later...
The people listed below were all put into nomination that year. Susan Estrich put Senator McGovern's name in the ring. I remember it well. We loved George then. Also I see her walking her dogs sometimes - always want to introduce myself - but all I can think to say is "what the hell was WRONG with Dukakis??? - a campaign she later managed -
At any rate, as you can see Democrats always put all contenders in nomination - except in "acclimation" years - in which case the nominee's lead is so overwhelming the show of unity becomes the tantamount concern. Mr. Obama does not have an overwhelming lead this year. In fact, he does not have enough pledged delegates to win. So an obscene insult to Hillary is preferable to risking super delegate accountability.
Walter Mondale - 2,191 (56.41%)
Gary Hart - 1,201 (30.92%)
Jesse Jackson - 466 (12.00%)
Thomas Eagleton - 18 (0.46%)
George McGovern - 4 (0.10%)
John Glenn - 2 (0.05%)
Joe Biden - 1 (0.03%)
Martha Kirkland - 1 (0.03%)
Who is Martha Kirkland? And who was her delegate???
posted by John Smart at
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
PERMALINK
<< Home