Battling On... To The Bitter End

It's official: the suffering will go on. With Hillary taking Pennsylvania, the Democratic Party will continue to wallow in nomination purgatory, unable to unite behind a candidate, unable to heal wounds that are growing deeper by the day. Unable, really, to do anything but watch helplessly as John McCain marches into Selma, Alabama to move in on African-American voters. Meanwhile, the Obama and Clinton campaigns might just be turning a mere food fight into a full-blown civil war within the party.

The frustrating thing, of course, is that there's really no end game here. At least, there's no constructive end game. Hillary, lagging hopelessly behind in the trifecta of pledged delegates, popular vote, and number of states won, can't expect to score a sudden breakthrough with voters. Nobody at this point is going to be moved by her policy positions or her experience. The voters know Hillary very well, and they've made up their minds one way or the other. And don't take my word for it: Hillary's own mantra is that she's the candidate who's already been vetted by the public and the media.

So if Hillary isn't going to make her own positive gains into Obama's larger core of support, what is she hoping for in the days and weeks (and maybe months!) ahead? The short answer is that she's waiting -- just treading water -- for something to tarnish Obama's shiny image. She probably thought she had it with the Rev. Wright affair, when her campaign latched onto incendiary statements made by Obama's pastor. And you can just picture Howard Wolfson, her chief media spinner and a man who feigns indignation as well as anyone in the business, jumping out of his seat when Obama's comments on small town voters hit the wires.

But neither Pastorgate nor Bittergate have done the trick for Hillary: we're right where we left off when the last major round of primaries took place. In fact, the exit polls from Pennsylvania are uncannily similar to those seven weeks ago in Ohio, even among the demographic groups that Hillary's supporters claim will usher her to the party's nomination. In both states, Hillary took exactly 58% of voters who did not have a college degree. Hillary took 64% of white voters in Ohio compared to 63% in Pennsylvania. And Hillary captured 56% of Ohio voters who earned less than $50,000 per year compared to 54% in Pennsylvania.

All of which goes to show that Hillary's attacks aren't changing the fundamental dynamics of this race. Surely her hope is that more ammunition will emerge; after all, she got two mini-scandals just by holding on in the weeks between Ohio and Pennsylvania. Yet the trenches are dug in this race. Gaffes, verbal lapses, and howling at every misstep are satisfying the media's thirst for juiciness. But acrimony and accusation aren't changing minds in an election that most voters are taking quite seriously; what they're doing instead is poisoning the well, convincing Hillary's supporters that Obama is unfit to lead and convincing Obama's supporters that Hillary represents exactly the kind of attack dog politics we've got to move beyond.

It's not too late. The party's leaders can show, well, leadership, and pressure superdelegates to declare their support. Or both campaigns can step away from the ledge and return to a worthwhile discussion of the issues. But if these things don't happen, it's easy to see the trainwreck at the end of the tunnel. Looking back years from now, the term "Bittergate" may not refer to a few inartful paragraphs muttered by one of the candidates, but instead to the increasing polarization and anger welling up inside the Democratic Party in a year when it should be coasting into the White House.

Comments

[lemondrop222]

Its not Hillary's fault. Until the party leaders step up and pick a side, who can blame her for holding on? Clearly, she has a strong and broad base of support. Meanwhile, the republicans are eating all of this up, watching in slow motion as the democrats make war with each other instead of rallying together to defeat their real opposition. Isn't this the fundamental job of the party leaders -- unite the party, rally the party, make the party stronger? Its clear that Obama will be nearly impossible to beat as far as pledged delegates and popular vote. If the party leaders wanted to put an end to this they could. Its time for the big dogs to throw their support behind Obama and allow Hillary to graciously step down because she has no choice, the votes have been cast. This needs to happen while there is still time to lick wounds and sing koombya. Otherwise, the only one coasting will be McCain as George W. tosses him the keys.

[M.S. Bellows, Jr. - Huffpost Blogger]

See M.S. Bellows, Jr.'s Profile

It IS her fault! Entirely her fault. She has zero chance of winning the race for elected delegates, and therefore almost no chance of winning enough Supers to put her over the top. If she were interested in the party, or the country, she'd not only stop trying to kneecap him, but would bow and start working hard to undo the damage she's done to his standing with crossover white and bluecollar voters.

But if Obama beats McCain, then he'll be the incumbent in 2012 and Clinton won't have another shot until 2016, when she'll be 68 years old (just 3 years younger than the "old" McCain is now).

So her last chance of becoming President is in 2012, and then only if Obama lost to McCain this year. If that were her plan, then she'd be extending her campaign, not to win in 2008, but to lay the grassroots groundwork in 2012. She'd be campaigning negatively, using Republican talking points. She'd have her staff send photos of Obama in Somali clothing to Matt Drudge. She'd behave exactly as she's behaving now.

The Supers need to recognize this -- can they really be so naive that they don't see it? -- and put an end to it by announcing their endorsements now.

[feelfree]

Don't be mad at Mrs. Clinton. The people (remember them) are saying she should continue otherwise she wouldn't be winning against a FRONTRUNNER who has raised more money than she has and outspent her nearly 3 to 1 in PA. The voters have chosen not to close ranks around Obama. Frankly I am not surprised.

[Titonwan]

The plan is so devious, even fatso bigot Karl Rove would be proud. Make no mistake- the media is controlled by corporate sponsors. How do you get what you want and still let the people think they got to voice their opinion? Why, you enter two neocons into the fray! You label one Democrat (Hillary) and the other Republican (Mc100years). You people that support Hillary don't know it yet, but you'd regret it the rest of your lives if she did happen to steal this election. And all the while, corporate america is laughing at your ignorance. Thank God Barack has the integrity to weather this and with the support behind him (which he has) WILL prevail. If not, I'm out of here. Costa Rica sounds nice. (at least that government tells you they're corrupt!)

[katefranklin]

As long as the media allows the Clintons to obfuscate the real scorecard whole hog (e.g., with their own fantasy popular vote metrics, MI and FL spin games, caucus state subtractions, etc.), we are absolutely churning on to the the bitter end. I've come to accept that the MSM -- with respect to the reality of this nomination contest -- is either obscenely dense or recklessly irresponsible.

[aftershock]

I pick the latter... recklessly irresponsible.