It's Better to Lose an Election than the Party
In the 20th century world of machine politics, political machines survived on the principle that "it's better to lose an election than to lose the party". The Clintons and Terry McAuliffe lost the National Democratic Party to Howard Dean & Co. after John Kerry lost to George Bush in 2004. Now it appears that Hillary has lost the nomination and if Obama is the candidate who loses to McCain it is likely that she and Bill will inherit the party once again. An Obama defeat by a Republican who bears the burden of George Bush's eight years, will forfeit any claim he may have to lead the Democratic Party. For him 2008 is the all or nothing year.
I know readers will think, and I don't know any nice way of putting it, that it might be in Hillary's interests not to do too much for the Obama campaign. Many of her voters are just as loyal to her as Obama's are to him, and if even 10% of them should decide to vote the other way, Mr. Obama is probably a loser. At this moment Obama may need Ms. Clinton more than she needs him, and it's probably time for Obama fans to forget the past and forgive Ms. Clinton, for what they perceive to be, her sins.
I saw little of that in the comments on "ABC -- Anybody But Clinton" piece posted here yesterday. I saw none of it over the weekend, when Obama's people demanded and received by a narrow vote four delegates in Michigan that they did not deserve, and certainly did not need. That kind of petty humiliation did nothing to restore party unity, and permitted Harold Ickes Jr. to get in some pretty rough licks at the Deaniacs who now run the party.
The time for that stuff is over and I'd advise the Obama team to take a hard look at what I will now call the ABOs -- Anybody But Obamas. Obama lost South Dakota, his sponsor Tom Daschle's home state, by ten points last night to Hillary Clinton, by that time a dead candidate. If even the politically dead can beat Obama, he's got a lot of work to do, and I'm not sure at this point if I'd advise Hillary Clinton to do any heavy lifting for him. It's a rough world out there and Barack is going to need all the help he can get. Because for Hillary's best political interests, it may be better to lose the election and regain the party.
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I urge Hillary to sit back and take it easy this election. That's what I'm going to do.
Cindy,
I am sorry to hear that you would throw away the 95% that Obama and Clinton have in common on policy. Please reconsider if you can manage to recover your sense of reason.
For you to start harping on an Obama defeat simply because Clinton is not the Democratic nominee would further divide the party and further harden her already hardened supporters.
It's time to move on. She lost. You have to get it to your head that Michigan and Florida violated the rules, and she wanted those delegates badly because she was losing to Obama. How can you say the ruling in favor of Obama was unfair, when SHE EARLIER STATED THAT THE VOTES OF MICHIGAN WOULD NOT COUNT?
The final agreement on the inclusion and participation of MI delegates between Michigan's democratic party and the DNC was not the Clinton proposal:
'I want them all!'
You wouldn't be happy regardless; Enough!
The truth is that Hillary Clinton will work her heart out for this lousy Democratic Party, filled with cowards and ingrates who were happy to have her campaign for them and raise money for them in their own campaigns over the years, only to turn on her and desert her for an unqualified, inexperienced empty suit.
Over 90% of the African-American community who had been comrades in arms with the Clinton's for decades, deserted her for the sake of identity politics. To ease their consciences they willingly bought into the slanders against both Clinton's that accused them as racially divisive.
There's nothing the Obama camp can do to bring me back to the fold.
Even if Bill and Hillary Clinton plead for her supporters to back Obama, I will not be among those who willing to do so.
It wasn't until South Carolina that black voters deserted the Clintons in droves. Bill's belittling comments about Obama's victory and "fantasy" were an epiphany. Suddenly the facade of Clinton as the champion of African-Americans crumbled. The wondering began. Just what really had the Clintons ever done, really, for them that amounted to more than lofty promises undelivered and empty words. Absolutely nothing.
Bill Clinton was exposed as the scam artist he always was. And, in truth, his policies delivered both blacks and whites up for the greed and amusement of the rich and powerful. And for that service, these global rulers made the Clintons one of them.
Ask not what the Clintons have done for you, ask only what you can be fooled into doing for the Clintons. Like paying off still very wealthy Hillary's loans to herself while struggling, yourself, just to earn enough in your NAFTA derived low wage service jobs just to pay for the gas to get to work.
Black voters finally confronted the truth of this phony "I feel your pain" couple. It's time the rest of us do, too.
Sooooo all these women voting for hillary and pushing letters to get her on the ticket is NOT identity politics. Go to her website and check out what identity politics really are.
Whaaa? The Clinton ere is O-V-E-R .... now, and in 2012, no matter what.
Bank on it.
"The time for that stuff is over "
Take your own advice!
We're on the high road, Mr. Shonfeld, and we can barely hear you up here...
Some of you are on the high road. Others are simply high.
Will she be loyal to the party or serve her own self - interest? Everything until now suggests self-interest. She may "damn him with faint praise."
Sir:
If you think that a majority of Democrats will return the party to the Clintons after their disgraceful behavior during this campaign; then you are as divorced from reality as your candidate.
If Sen. Obama loses in November, the DNC will know exactly where to place the blame: at The Clintons front door step.
So keep up the demands & the threats supporters of Sen. Clinton. The Democratic bus is leaving the station with Obama in the driver's seat, you can hop on now, or explain to your children later how you helped elect John McCain & that's the reason why abortion is now illegal & we are still in Iraq!
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