Many people, especially Republicans, are interpretting the heated Democratic primary contests between Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as a battle that will help Republican John McCain in the November election. But the reality is that the debate between Obama and Clinton represents a real threat to the Republican Party which has been marginalized in the minds of most American voters. Instead of benefiting from the Clinton-Obama election battles, the Republican Party will be pushed aside in November as voters reject McCain as merely a weaker Bush clone who will undoubtedly be controlled by the same people who managed George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove.
Republican media extremists like Sean Hannity (the Nazi pal) and Glenn Beck and others are trying hard to make their weak candidate, John McCain, relevant in the post-Bush administration election season. These people that I like to call the "GOP Jihadists" know that deep down, McCain is a terrible candidate who stood by and watched Bush trample the U.S. Constitution and bludgeon civil rights. McCain's softball "challenges" to Bush's extremist and exploitive policies were just that, acquiescence to the malfeasance and even possibly the war crimes of the Bush administration.
While McCain offers nothing different from Bush -- other than possibly being an even more watered down "Bush Third Term" -- these GOP Jihadists are pointing to the sometimes emotional duel between Obama and Clinton, with Obama's spokesman David Axelrod accusing Clinton's people of "throwing everything including the kitchen sink" while Clinton's people are calling Obama hypocrites.
Yes, there is a heated debate between Obama and Clinton. But it is not a destructive debate. In fact, it is the ONLY debate. Americans are not focused on McCain, and when the Obama and Clinton contest is decided, the winner of the Democratic primary and the candidate enodrsed by the Democratic National Convention will in fact be the defacto American president and the November elections will be little more than a formality rubber stamping (with some screaming and histrionics from the GOP Jihadists like Hannity and Beck) the will of the American people.
McCain is being marginalized and that is a serious threat to the Republican Party which dominated this nation for nearly eight years simply because an Islamic fanatic named Osama Bin laden managed to sneak through the lapses in the Bill Clinton and the George W. Bush administration's concerns for international terrorism. Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush dropped the ball on protecting this country from international terrorism and Bush exploited that in taking over as president to separate people ont he basis of a mob mentality, a vigilante mentality where Americans were told people were either "with us or against us."
The truth is NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION TO MCCAIN and that can stay that way.
Hillary Clinton is trailing Obama, but she is not out for the count yet. Although Obama is leading Clinton in terms of delegates (144 more than Clinton) and votes, almost 700,000 out of more than 25 million cast so far going into this final round of 10 state primaries beginning Tuesday, Obama does not have a clear mandate either. What will happent his summer is that the Democratic Party will convene at select a candidate and it promises to be one of the most important events in the history of this country. It will be a defining moment for an American seeking to undo the destruction caused by the Bush administration.
The only real threat facing the Democratic Party will be one defined by Democrats themselves. First, if they start to believe the Rove-Cheney propaganda that someone McCain will benefit from t he open and full debate that Obama and Clinton are engaged in, and more iportantly, if the candidate that is not chosen decides to take their marbles as sour grapes and not enthusiastically support the winning candidate.
I think that threat is the real threat. Supporters of Barack Obama may not support the Democratic Party if Hillary Clinton some how wins the nomination. And just as likely, supporters of Hillary Clinton may not support the Democratic Party if Barack Obama is formally nominated as the party's standard bearer and the next president of the United States.
In reality, the Clinton's have a record of stabbing allies in the back. They pretended to endorse Al Gore but in fact did all they could to undermine his campaign because the Clinton's view their desirous victory as their destiny. It's more likely that the real challenge to the Democratic Party will be to hold itself together after the Democratic Convention.
Can Democrats do that? If they can, McCain will continue to be marginalized and the Republican Party will face a revolution of its own, one that needs to throw out the hatemongers that dominate their party and their "media" advocates like the Gop Jihadists like Hannity and Beck.
Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com
www.ArabWritersGroup.com