My supporters are itching for a fight and plan to wage one in Denver.
Posted on 08/17/2008 11:28:22 AM PDT by Zakeet
A memo to the supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid: Get over it. She lost. No amount of foot stomping or hand pounding at the convention is going to change the delegate math.
Continued efforts to promote Clinton and undermine the presumptive nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, will play into the hands of the Republicans in the fall election and could sour Democrats on the Clintons forever.
Given the role of the former president and first lady in national politics since the early 1990s, it would be a shame if their lasting legacy was to disrupt one of the best chances the Democrats had at gaining the White House since the Clintons departed.
It’s hard to believe that Clinton supporters continue to balk at pleas for party unity in the wake of Sen. John McCain’s surge in late-summer polls.
A commanding lead by Obama has now become a statistical dead heat. The margin for error is slim, as we have seen in the past two presidential elections. If Clinton supporters would rather see McCain in the White House, they are doing all the right things.
The Obama forces control the convention planning and have been more than accommodating. Clinton’s name will be put into nomination. She and her husband will enjoy prime-time visibility. Other than forfeiting the nomination, there’s little else Obama could do to mollify Clinton supporters.
Nonetheless, according to The Associated Press, “they are itching for a fight and plan to wage one in Denver.”
Their plans include papering the city with pro-Clinton and anti-Obama fliers; promoting a video claiming “irregularities” in the nominating process; and unleashing and endless torrent of online vitriol through a corps or recruited bloggers.
Newspaper ads were purchased demanding a roll-call vote on Clinton for the nomination even before Obama’s camp had a chance to resolve the matter in her favor.
It’s hard to understand where all this bitterness toward Obama originates. Clinton supporters feel she was treated unfairly during the campaign, but their wrath should be directed at the media, which was arguably more favorable in its Obama coverage. For his part, Obama was mostly respectful in the debates and throughout the campaign.
Have the Democrats learned nothing from their past mistakes. American voters have shown historically that a party not organized enough to manage its own convention is often considered not well-suited to manage the nation – the catastrophic Democratic convention of 1968 being the most often cited example. It probably cost Hubert Humphrey the White House in a very close election with Richard Nixon.
The divisive primary campaign has given the Republicans plenty of ammunition to use already. GOP-funded television ads with Hillary Clinton and other Democrats criticizing Obama are already on the air, and more are certainly forthcoming. Providing footage from their own convention certainly won’t help.
The party needs to unite behind Obama unequivocally or run the risk of bringing new life to the famous quote by Will Rogers: “I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.”
My supporters are itching for a fight and plan to wage one in Denver.
Go Pumas , No beast , no peace .
I’m hoping for fistfights on the convention floor.
Ladies from the N.A.G.s whoopin up on wussie boy Obamma supporters. Black Obamma supporters and blue collar white Hillary suporters duking it out.
I’m talking of at least a little blood shed At the convention and at least a little on the streets of Denver.
Raise hell in Denver. Hope that is the dems legacy.
Evidently the editors of this paper are Obamaphiles.
“It’s hard to believe that Clinton supporters continue to balk at pleas for party unity in the wake of Sen. John McCain’s surge in late-summer polls.”
Really? The primary process was very close, Hillary was doing better toward the end, Obama is doing badly in the polls despite all out worship by the media, yet no one should even THINK of challenging him at the convention?
If hillary fails to stage an insurrection at the convention, it will be because Obama and the Chicago Mob have inserted their loyal operatives where it counts, and not because Obama is such a wonderful candidate. Even these useful idiots admit that he is not doing very well.
RE-CREATE ‘68 ! RE-CREATE ‘68 !
This author does not understand that they are not angry at Obama, but at the Democrats who gave Hillary the shaft.
Thanks Rush
It ain’t over until the Hildebeast sings.
It must just suck to be her in this Presidential race.
If the Edwards or Revered Write stuff were public knowledge during the Iowa vote, then she would have won from there on out 85%. Now the best she can hope for is a VP spot and an Obama heart attack.
“She lost. No amount of foot stomping or hand pounding at the convention is going to change the delegate math.”
Tell me again how many delegates Obama has....
and if the heart attack thing does not work out for ‘em the clintons can employ some of their other tried and true methods for an oppositions “removal”.
Hillary wants a McCain Presidency to challenge in 2012.
Hope that happens, and that two liberal justices get preplacecd by then.
In fact, the "delegate math" is as shifty and ill-defined as anything else associated with the Democratic Party. If Dean and the crew want Her Army to sit down and shut up it's going to take a little more than "get over it." This is politics. They'll need to be bought, and She'll need to be bought, and it isn't exactly the same thing.
They'll need to be kept on the plantation by party platform although it is a bit difficult to imagine just how far Dean and the DNC might have to go to do so. A promise of federal legislation to address the fictitious "income disparity" might serve, a sort of super affirmative action with respect to salaries. Proposing a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to abortion might be another, although its chances of passage would be microscopic and of ratification nonexistent. That sort of thing.
As for Her, however, only power will serve. If the DNC thinks she'll give in personally in favor of party comity (and hence imperil her chance of the 2012 nomination) then they've taken one too many hits off Teddy Kennedy's hip flask. Won't happen.
The Vice Presidency? That's what it keeps coming back to despite the fervent denials from both camps. We've already had female Secretaries of State and She is not interested in following the footsteps of the likes of Maddy and Condi. What an Obama/Hillary administration might look like in practice curls the hair. See you in the bunker...
Itching for a fight? Very well could be.
My concern is that Obama WILL announce Hillary for VP. If he does, I think there’s a great chance Obama will be our next President. Just a gut feel that something big is brewing.
Have that feeling also, would be just what he needs is Hillary as VP to get it done.
Clear these thoughts.
Yeah, there has to be a reason Obama is letting the Clintons (all three of them) have such a prominent role at the convention. Maybe it's just to mollify her angry supporters. Or maybe it's a prelude to announcing her as VP.
On the other hand, consider it from her point of view. Does she really want to be VP for eight years, so close to, but not in, the White House? Does he want her and her husband around, kibitzing and stealing the show? And that's assuming the gambit works, and they win.
Now you have to compare that prospect to gamely supporting the Obama-WhoKnows ticket and watching it carry DC in November. Then just four years later, another chance at the Oval Office!
The third possibility, stealing the nomination at the roll call, is a no-go. It would be a stunning blow to the aspirations of the 90+% blacks. They would desert the party, and the damage would extend well beyond Clinton's defeat in November.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.