May 9, 2008...8:16 am
The Democratic Train Wreck
Barack Obama is planning on declaring victory on May 20, win or lose.
Hillary Clinton is in West Virginia claiming she has more white support than Obama and thus is more electable in November. Of course, we’ve all seen this quote by now:
“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on 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.”
Welcome to the Democratic Party train wreck. In a year where the Democrats were all but given the White House on a silver plater, a long worn out primary process has placed what should’ve been a blown out victory for the blue team into a legitimate race in which Republican John McCain now has a serious chance of winning come November.
And the longer Clinton stays in the race the more it helps McCain.
Here’s why.
Obama has to contend with Clinton, just as McCain had to contend with Mike Huckabee. This prevents Obama from turning financial resources to the November race and concentrating his efforts on McCain.
Also, the Democratic Party has to go through some sort of healing process, similar to what the Republicans had to go through when it accepted McCain as the nominee. The difference is that the Democrats have to be unified well before November. In my estimation, it takes a good month to two months to heal a party divide. Assuming Clinton takes the race all the way to June 3, which she is allowed to do, it would mean the party won’t be unified before its convention. That’s never a good thing.
The longer Clinton remains in the race the more attention is placed on the fact that votes in Michigan and Florida did not count in the primary process. Clinton believes the votes should count. I’m sure the voters in Michigan and Florida do as well. Not seating any delegates to both of these states is a huge slap in the face that will come back into play come November.
Clinton is not going anywhere. It’s not in the Clinton DNA to quit, but in the process they have broken the unity of the Democratic Party as evidence by exit polls Tuesday saying many Clinton supporters will not support Obama.
This race is a long way from being over. It should’ve been over Tuesday and really it was. But as long as Clinton is in the race, the game continues. There just may not be anyone in attendance except for herself much longer.
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