Lose-Lose in Pennsylvania
In the wake of the Pennsylvania primary, Democrats across America are spending their coffee breaks lamenting the vacuous politics that will inevitably drag on into June. Like a family road trip, the chattering siblings in the back seat are all wondering if were there yet -- still uncertain of the destination.
At some point on the way to Texas, this caravan was baited into turning down a dirt road. The consequences can be found in Tuesday's exit polls, in which 43% of Clinton supporters said they would not vote for Obama if he were to win the nomination.
This division manifested itself outside Clinton's victory party in downtown Philadelphia. Hundreds of sign-wielding Obama and Clinton supports stood on opposite sides of the street, straining their voices in group chants -- hoping to declare a decibel victory regardless of the night's results.
"Yes we will!" chanted the Clinton supporters, trumping Obama's hopeful slogan with one of smug realism.
"nanananah, nanananah... hey, hey, hey, hey... goodbye" sang Obama supporters in defiant response.
The scene's significance was vocalized when its participants were asked if they would support either candidate as the party's nominee.
"From what I've seen from Senator Obama's campaign, I WILL NOT VOTE FOR SENATOR OBAMA," declared one woman who had been standing in support of Senator Clinton for more than three hours. "After 20 years of voting Democratic, all my adult life, I will not vote for Senator Obama. I don't care if Hillary tells me to,"
Across the street, the woman's counterpart responded in a calmer tone, confiding to me that he could not vote for Hillary because she is too hawkish. "She is closer to John McCain than Obama," he said.
These sentiments were echoed throughout the night. One man towards the back of the Clinton crowd heard my conversation with his anti-Obama colleagues and sighed in exasperation. "I would vote for Obama if it came down to that," he said. "I'm sick of being separated... I'm not just a white man and she's not just a white woman. They're not just black men. This is America. We're all in this together."
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Outrageous! While mainstream media talking heads debate each other in sterile "situation rooms" and pose in front of recognizable monuments, the real journalists are taking to the streets to promote the voice of the people. If this isn't democracy in action I don't know what is. Well done, Real News.
If by some horrible miracle Hillary is the Dem nominee I'll hold my nose and vote for her. Seriously, any Democratic Hillary supporter who wouldn't vote for Obama, and vice versa, is cutting off their nose to spite their face, and dooming us to Bush II.
Not thank you.
During the Clinton impeachment, Senator Alan Simpson told his Republican colleagues not to worry about the negative polls and the upcoming election because "Americans can't remember past the last sports season" In the era of Bush long term memory span has been reduced to 3 weeks.
All this tough talk doesn't matter. In a few weeks everyone will have forgotten why they were so mad.
Let the election play out why should we end it now and leave nine states with no say in the election of our next president Obama supporters are afraid that Hillary might wind up with one more delegate than Obama and they have been calling for Hillary to step down for months. The republicans in North Carolina are now running attack ads on Obama just a sample of what will come if he is the nominee. He is the one who should step down because he can"t win the swing states needed and if he thinks he can turn the red states blue he is more naive than I thought. He has alienated the white working class the people who make this country work and the next nine states are loaded with them.
Obama supporters need not worry that Clinton will have more pledged delegates than Obama because it is virtually a mathematical impossibility. She's not going to get 68% of the remaining primaries. Her best shot of doing that was in Pennsylvania, and she came up 13% points short. I'm sorry your candidate is propping your hopes up unreasonably. Some polls show her negatives are higher than George W. Bush's. That's not a candidate you want to gift to the GOP. Tell your story to a superdelegate, because they are the only ones that can reverse Clinton's fortunes (and good luck in your convincing).
Can we just please stop the charade that any of these primaries or voters matter?
If superdelegates feel good about overturning the results of the primaries and caucuses, let's just stop now, admit voters votes don't matter, save some time and money and let the grand poohbahs of the party call it. one way or the other.
The job of the super delegates is to choose the person that can win not to look at the popular vote. The popular vote does not elect our president and hasn't done so since James Madison.
So what's such a big deal about that voter's PMS drama? They say one thing today and change their minds tomorrow. Dignity isn't the trait of masses.
Who cares?
Certainly not the idiots, especially her long time close friend, Lieberman, who are advising Hillary to stay the course.
What it ultimately comes down to is this:
You either vote for more war and more out of control executive government in DC or you vote for Obama.
The choice is simple.
Either or...
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