Could the Hillary healing process be a Trojan Horse?
By Dave McNeely | Published Sunday, August 24, 2008
OK, Hillary Clinton has acknowledged that she didn't get enough delegates in the Democratic caucuses and primary elections to be declared the presidential nominee.
And she's no doubt figured out that, even though her former aide has been designated by Barack Obama's campaign to be the campaign chief for whoever he chooses as a running mate, she's not going to get that slot either.
So, in what is being billed as a negotiated healing process between the Obama and Clinton campaigns, Hillary's delegates will put her name in nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. They have that right. After all, she got more than 1,900 delegates.
And then, after the token offering of putting her name in nomination, the presumption is that many if not most of them, including her, will then switch their votes to Obama.
This is apparently considered a gesture necessary to mend fences between the Clintonistas and the Obamaites, to keep the Hillary supporters from wandering off to vote for Republican John McCain, or just staying home on election day. If they get to at least go through the motions to demonstrate how they feel, then they can go ahead and put on hold their anger at their party not taking the opportunity to run the first woman major-party nominee for president. Instead, they'll fall in behind the first major-party African-American nominee.
For whatever twisted reason, this whole exercise reminds me of a woman relative, since gone to that great caucus in the sky, who was furious in 1984 at the fact that Geraldine Ferraro was the Democrats' vice-presidential nominee. Even though the presidential nominee, former Vice President Walter Mondale, made history as the first major-party candidate to choose a woman for a running mate, this lady was so incensed that Ferraro was number two on the ticket, rather than being the presidential nominee, that she voted for Ronald Reagan in November. True story.
Against that backdrop, it may not be too far-fetched to wonder whether enough Clinton supporters are so out of joint because their gal didn't get the nod that they'd actually choose McCain over Obama, to do things like appoint the next round of Supreme Court justices and decide the future of the war in Iraq. Could McCain actually get elected as a result of those straying Clinton supporters?
Or, in another crazy thought, consider this scenario:
The Clinton team slips into the Obama delegates' convention gift bags a powerful laxative disguised as chocolate. Or they arrange for the Obama folks' beer kegs to be laced with sleeping potions powerful enough to knock them out for a couple days.
And then, while the Obama folks are missing in action, asleep or doing something else in their respective hotel rooms, Hillary's troops vote her in.
They might ply the 800-plus SuperDelegates, even those already pledged to Obama, with promises of enormous benefits on the back side if they throw in with what could become the second Clinton Administration.
Naaahhh. Truly foolish thinking. Could never happen. The Clinton forces are probably indeed going to be appropriately mollified, and go through with the negotiated deal. They'll have their moment, kiss and make up, and then get on with the business of trying to capitalize on the wind at the Democrats' back and actually elect Obama.
But at least one of us can't help wondering; the Clintons are fierce fighters. Whatever happens, it should be very interesting to watch.
And so on...
Whatever happens in Denver, the Obama campaign knows that it has hard work ahead with Hispanic Democrats. Clinton outdid Obama with Hispanics by about two to one, and trying to get them over their disappointment, and getting them out to the polls to vote for Obama, is indeed going to be a large challenge.
If it works, that could make the difference in not just the presidential race but in races further down the ballot in some states with significant Hispanic populations, like New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and even Texas.
Contact McNeely at dmcneely@austin.rr.com or (512) 458-2963.
