Hillary Clinton Ready To Unite The Party
Although many of her detractors have said that Hillary Clinton probably considers herself to be more important than the Democratic Party, the Senator from New York indicated during yesterday’s debate that she’s not willing to blow up the party if she loses. Instead, it’s clear that she’ll endorse Obama if he does well in Ohio and Texas (wins there). Yes she wants to win, but - she said - what matters most is what’s good for the country, not what’s good for Hillary.
Some bloggers seem to believe that HRC basically sang her swan song, but I disagree with that. I don’t think she has given up just yet. But she is most definitely preparing for an eventual defeat. And if she’s defeated, she’ll fight for her party, and thus for Barack Obama. She won’t continue to run - as Mike Huckabee - for as long as she can.
It’s an interesting development. From a Democratic perspective this is great news. From a Republican perspective it’s not (’let Democrats eat their own’). But from the perspective of what’s best for America I think it’s good as well. Let both parties nominate strong candidates, let both parties be united, and let then the people as a whole decide who becomes the next president.
No?
Not a difficult thing to say since the likelihood of that happening is rather low. He could win Texas (though she’s still a frontrunner there) but he’s very unlikely to win Ohio, she has an over 10 point lead in that state.
The fact is that the numbers are already stacked against her because in order to get a net lead on Obama in delegates she’d not only have to win both states, but do so by considerable margins. I don’t see her giving up if she wins both states by small margins and says behind in delegates. I’m not even sure I think it would be bad of her to hold on in those circumstances. They would be, to all intents and purposes, tied then, and as much as I would like Obama to win bowing out when you’re within striking distance seems too much to ask.
There is simply no way of uniting the Democratic party over a candidate who is inexperienced and clearly unqualified and who did not campaign on the issues in substance or specifics. The biased media propelled the candidacy of the Obama cult and undermined the Democratic nomination process. If Obama gets the nomination, he will crash and burn in November.
crat3, you really must get your information from more sources than Hillary Clinton fan-sites. Obama is currently polling ABOVE Clinton nationally, does BETTER than her in a theoretical lineup against McCain and has LOWER negatives than she does (fewer people who say they would refuse to vote for him).
Whenever there is a close nomination race the end result is that whoever wins, a certain number of people will refuse to vote for them. However, I think that that number is higher in the case that Clinton wins the nomination that the contrary, since Obama has brought people to the process that otherwise wouldn’t vote at all and may well go back to indifference if Clinton gets it.
In any event the unity or not of the party will depend largely on the type of victory. If any one of them can make a clean victory, winning more delegates, more states and more votes and then getting the nomination, then whoever they are, the party will mostly fall in line. But if it isn’t a clean victory….well, McCain will be laughing about it all the way to the White House.
I have to say, that although I’m not ready to predict the downfall of Obama, I do think there’s a huge risk that the media has built him up for a fall. By promoting his charisma, they may have actually done a huge disservice to him and to the Democratic party- because by failing to address the substance, they’ve created a popularity surge for him which looks to me like a huge balloon that’s about to burst. Far too many people seem to have jumped on the bandwagon without having the traditional vetting of a candidate (note that I’m not saying that the substance isn’t there, just that I see evidence of a lot of people supporting him without knowing what he really plans to do- and note also that I’m not saying that all Obama supporters are like that.)
All along, I’ve felt that this would lead to problems after he was elected, as certain groups of voters finally realize that he might not be for the kind of change that they want. Now, I’m starting to think that that implosion may happen before the election rather than after it. And the media is right there encouraging it to happen, with the way they’re now showing how ridiculous some of the adulation for him has become (girls fainting and people applauding when he blows his nose on stage!) It’s becoming a bit farcical, and that is spurring more and more people to take a closer look at him and some may not be as happy with the whole package as they thought they were.
I think she has earned the right to have her name put into nomination at the convention. I see no reason for her to withdraw. Hopefully, if she is to lose, and I think she will (and after the campaign that has been run by her team she probably should lose) she will lose gracefully and urge people to unify around Obama. Thats 50% of it. Hopefully too, Obama’s steroidal fans will cease fire on the snarky anger against both Clintons and her supporters, and allow the party to unify. Thats the other 50% of it. This isnt a one way street. Obama needs Hillary’s votes to win in the fall, no question about that at all. And those votes cannot be taken for granted but must be earned. BOTH Obama and Hillary will nave to demonstrate some leadership at the convention to unify the party, and their respective supporters will have to show more willingness to unify than I have seen so far. If Obama’s people boo Hillary and Bill at the convention, well then all bets are off. This whole thing can turn out fine for Dems if we can just stop beating on each other. Both sides had better take heed or we will see Anonin Scalia II on the Supreme Court and that would be a national tragedy.
Obama supporters: you are poised for victory. Will you be gracious winners and warmly embrace your foes in the grandest Lincoln tradition? Hillarys supporters will be there with you in the trenches if you do.