For the past five months, as caucus after primary came and went, we've become more and more polarized with respect to our two sides here. With last night's results from North Carolina and Indiana being digested, we are all doing a bit more soul searching and a bit more reassessing to figure out what is going on now. There are many calls for unity and for a less confrontational dialogue with Clinton supporters on this site and on the numerous other blogs and newspaper comment threads throughout the country.
However, I'm not ready to forgive and forget, yet.
Let me explain where I'm coming from for just a bit. I have tremendous respect for Senator Clinton, even now. As someone who lived in New York for a time, I was very excited in her candidacy for the U.S. Senate. I've tracked her rise in power and influence since her election to the Senate, and I've been proud of her achievements and hopeful about an inevitable presidential run. I was a supporter early on in the campaign, well before this site was divided from MyDD in the polar Democratic Party we inhabit today. Looking back on my own support, I can see now why I supported her. She was going to be the first woman President and I was very excited about the prospects. She was going to return the prosperity and good times we experienced during the Clinton Administration to the wreckage of our country left by president Bush. I never realized before this election the power of name recognition in an election.
And then, two weeks before Super Tuesday in February, when I was still deciding for whom to vote in my primary contest, I started digging a bit more and reading a bit more here. When the California primary rolled around, I voted for Senator Obama, happily, and hoped against hope that Zogby's polling was correct. I never made that mistake again with Zogby.
And then it hit me... the Clinton spin. The division of our party into size and shape and location and color and creed. Every trait and characteristic that makes the Democratic Party inclusive and tolerant, and draws more and more people into our party, was being used to divide us from within. I rejoiced in the turnout numbers for our Democratic contests as compared to the Republican ones, long before they had their own nominee. But I was dismayed with the building perception that Obama could only win the African American vote, which indirectly implied that Clinton would win the white vote. Rubbish.
Looking more closely at the Super Tuesday results, I came to my own conclusions about why Senator Clinton didn't win outright on that night, and thereby win the party nomination. Senator Clinton and her campaign had relied upon her inevitability argument to carry her through. If I'm any indication of the average voter, her high name recognition alone could have been enough for many people who didn't have the time that we have here to take a closer, deeper look into the two respective campaigns and candidates. Instead of working hard in every single state (like she didn't have the funds to do it at the time) she concentrated her attention on the states that would matter for her in the general election. Almost like she was testing out her terribly flawed strategy for success in November. Instead of building on our setback in 2004 by drawing in more and more people and more and more states to our side, she wanted to play the same game again, using exactly the same moves, so that she could win California by 20% instead of 10% in 2004, but still come out with the same number of electoral votes; playing the same game with the same strategy and moves, and hoping for a different solution. Chaos theory indeed. She would concentrate on Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and Florida in the fall and hope that the Republicans didn't know what she was doing. Rather like going to war and forecasting to the enemy where and when you will attack them, never expecting that they would also dump all of their resources into defending Ohio and Florida and making a play for Pennsylvania.
But the thing that really got my dander up is how Senator Clinton, herself, had no foresight during her whole campaign. She never thought that another candidate could ever challenge her. She never felt that saving a bit of campaign money for after Super Tuesday would be useful or helpful. I suppose when you are all-in for a single day of the campaign, you can't really take precautions in the event that this single day doesn't pay off for you. But if you're the President and you're influencing the country's economy, you'd better make sure that you're not blowing the whole budget on Mark Penn. I have no doubt that had the nomination fight ended on Super Tuesday, she would never have built up her campaign ground organization in the later states until way too late in the general election cycle, after reacting to poles that would suddenly show her competitive somewhere but it being too late in the calendar to do anything about it.
And now the good reasons. She never figured that touting the support of Senator Glenn in Ohio would blunt any attack she could make on McCain over his Keating Five involvement. She never realized (or maybe she did) that attacking Obama on some threshold for being presidential could diminish both Obama and herself. She never dreamed that her attacks on Obama credibility and truthfulness would rebound in the video of her Bosnian tall tale. She couldn't see how Obama would use a 3AM ad to strike at one of her weakest points... her judgment in times of trial. She couldn't see how her brilliant scheme of pitting African Americans against Latinos against intellectuals against seniors against new voters would create one of the more divisive campaigns in memory. She continues to recall the campaigns of LBJ and Mondale but should we really be recalling those campaigns as examples of the process for electing our nominee? And the latest example... she couldn't comprehend how insulting economists and disregarding a whole swath of our scientific and research class moves her closer to president Bush, not further away.
I'm not ready to forgive and forget, yet. I have too much respect for Clinton supporters to do so. And I'm not going to extend a mock olive branch to the people who have attacked my choice for the Democratic nomination for the past three months even after it was abundantly clear to everyone that Obama would be the nominee. I don't want to go with my hat in my hand and ask for their vote and hope that they just give it away. They've been invested in Senator Clinton as much as I have been invested in Senator Obama and, like me, they won't just give away their vote to the next person. We have to build a stronger foundation for a Clinton supporter's acceptance of Obama than just this.
In the end, this extended primary contest will cost us time and money, but only a smattering of votes. Senator Obama must take the time and spend the money to court these Clinton supporters again. He's got to go and ask for their vote, and he's got to prove to them that even though their first choice in Clinton is no longer available, that he is just as good as their favored candidate. Sure he's got millions of people to convince (based on the primary voter turnout for Clinton) but I have to think that a few million have already come to the realization that he would make a great nominee and they'd be correct. The others will take more and more convincing but that's what these intervening months are for. One day, an assault on McCain's policy proposals. The next day, Obama's own proposals to help specific segments of Clinton's base of support. Hell, it will be a lot easier to convince Democrats to back him than to win over Independents in Clinton's case were she to be the nominee.
For the past three months, the following phrase comes to mind... with friends like these, who needs enemies. And that's exactly what's happened. We've slowed down our march to victory this fall by getting caught up in a squabble for the very identity of the party. I think it was a good discussion to have and in the end I think Obama will come out stronger through the effort. Time is what we've lost... time to accentuate our Congressional strategy and to fundraise for more than the Presidency. But the time we've lost will be well-spent if we can enlarge our Democratic electorate by not only registering new voters but also folding in those voters who have been some of the most loyal voters around... the Clinton supporters. It takes a good deal of loyalty to stick with Senator Clinton through this whole nomination fight and I can only imagine how helpful it will be to Senator Obama to earn some of that support back to him.
I'm not ready to forgive and forget, yet. Our movement is energized and passionate and I'm not ready to let that go. Obama volunteers and staff have worked endlessly and have shown a zeal that few would associate with a political contest. Why decrease the fervor in Obama supporters when we are about to require every bit of energy and passion against Senator McCain? Look, I don't want to attack Senator Clinton needlessly, but I do want to be ready to respond. I'm not letting anyone attack my party nominee for the sake of party unity. The unity will come, but if we've all learned something from Senator Kerry's encounter with the right-wing smear machine it's that attacks must be countered with information and the truth immediately and as a reflex. Party unity will only be slowed if we just take for granted the voices of Senator Clinton's supporters. As I said before, we need to earn those votes so that many of Clinton's supporters don't feel as if they are voting for Obama only because she asked them to, or because they just want this primary season done with; but instead because they've uncovered their own personal reasons for supporting Obama. It may not be his health care proposals but it may be his stance on the gas tax holiday. It may not be his handling of the Pastor Wright saga, but it may be based on his green economy proposals and his history as a community organizer and his incredible ability to motivate new voters to register to vote. That's fine.
But after months of enduring Republican talking points coming out of our friends' mouths, the traditional media's penchant for elevating the second place competitor to the detriment of the candidate in the lead (something we can expect to happen with McCain as well), and Senator Clinton's transformation into an ambulance chaser just waiting for something bad to happen to Senator Obama, I don't think we should rest on our laurels and issue an obvious pander to Clinton supporters for their votes. This is what the gas tax holiday is, and I don't think we should treat Clinton supporters in such a way as to imply that we can pander for their votes. As a sign of respect, those votes should be earned by Obama, because in the end we desperately need every single vote that Senator Clinton has earned herself.