Hillary has poisoned the well.
She wants to be the savior in 2012. So badly that she has tried to destroy the support Obama had sparked in independents and disillusioned republicans, by scaring them, and the superdelegates, into thinking that the racists are larger in number than they really are.
Sadly, the only possible ways that Mccain can lose now:
- They do the worst thing possible and nominate Hillary and Obama accepts VP and he works devotedly to get them over the top.
- They do the right thing and nominate Obama, and he somehow miraculously manages to do it again - that is, find a way to re-set/re-frame the whole situation in an inspiring way that reaches out, again, to all those embittered republicans and independents and newly registered voters.
Ah but the caveats...
The problem with option 1 is that it really is the beginning of the end for the democratic party as we know it. Of course some would say this is not a problem at all. That it has become a lethargic shameless shill and something of an ambulance chasing lawyer, only it chases the GOP platform instead.
Nonetheless, if Hillary is nominated, and Obama is not the VP, it will be decimated by 2028, with a large % becoming independent or libertarian. If Obama is VP, it will still be decimated, only it will take longer, because it will not address the underlying structural flaw.
The problem with option 2 is that it will require something of a miracle, and I am afraid the country is settling back into its cynical/apathetic mode, thanks in no small part to the 24/7 news cycle and Hillary's deft use of it as a weapon to achieve her ambitions.
But make no mistake, the millions of new voters that for the most part have entered this election thanks to Obama's message of Hope (with major credit also going to Edwards' message of Change) will not simply fall into the fold if Obama is not the nominee even though he has won the delegates.
I continually hear this glossing-over on the news and here in the blogosphere.
It's not true, and persisting with it is disingenuous, and dangerous.
I know it's difficult to have perspective in the heat of the moment. But I happen to be sitting at a distance and following this mess very closely and thought I'd try to offer some feedback I think is rather dire, but direly needed. I'm a fairly new transplant American living abroad, across the Atlantic.
Do the American people not realize that we are actively and openly discussing the possibility that a candidate whom has inspired the nation to come together when it needs to most, and has won the most delegates and primaries, may actually not receive the nomination according to the process laid out in detail before-hand? More importantly, do we not have a clue how foolish just considering the thought is?
It seems that we have no perspective at all, nor adequate respect for our own ideals. Hillary has said it so often: "anything is fair game in an election". And she and the GOP she loves so much have included American Principles in that as well.
When I sit back at a distance and measure the choices, McCain, Clinton, or Obama, I see two distinct paths. The first, whether it's Clinton or McCain really only matters in small ways and the time it will take to see how badly it ends. The second is something America as not had since 1968. If such a rare opportunity is lost in the wash of the news cycle, apathy, and dirty linen that make up politics as usual in America in 2008, another will not come along so soon. And the price of wasting it will be astronomical, literally and figuratively.
Barack Obama is no savior, and doesn't pretend to be. But the American principles that he is trying to reinvigorate in Americans may be what saves America from itself.
And you can call this anti-Americanism, doom-saying, trolling, a hit-diary, whatever cute buzz phrase you like. Call it honestly though: America is talking rather much and rather lightly about the dismissal of its own supposed values. And from a certain vantage point seems to be actually considering the possibility of proving yet again to the world that bitter, cynical, oblivious hypocrisy really is bliss.