I tried to brush off
Hillary's promise to support the nominee of the Democratic Party, "whoever she may be," but it continued to eat away at me overnight, so I decided to ask how others heard it. I see that TomP has diaried about unity in last night's speeches, but I didn't see this theme in
I heard it as a withdrawal of her promise to support Obama and permission for her supporters not to support him. That reminded me of the graphology diary that said that Hillary's handwriting suggests that what you see is not what you'll get. We didn't need handwriting analysis to tell us that, but it's an unwelcome confirmatory perspective.
So what needs to happen? Trying to push Clinton out just eggs her on, so I don't think that that the party can readily discipline her (set limits on her behavior from outside). Even having all the remaining super delegates endorse Obama wouldn't be dispositive, because, until the convention, she can continue to appeal to pledged and super delegates to vote their consciences, which really have to be for her (snark), asking how their consciences can possibly allow them to vote for Obama, now that she's "won" the popular vote. Do they really want to overturn the expressed will of the people, no matter what the rules of the party were at the beginning of the primary season? There's still lots of room for her and her supporters to create mischief.
And I think that pushing her out will encourage many of her supporters to dig in their heels.
So I'm wondering whether the Democratic Party needs to shun her. Obama seems to have already begun that. Let her keep on going, be polite to her, learn from her, but also do what can be done to limit the damage from whatever mischief she engages in. Basically ignore her. It should turn its attention to McCain. That will also anger her and her supporters, but less so, IMHO, than taking her on head on. Shunning her would not be fun or easy, but it would free the party from needing her to withdraw. Needing her to withdraw gives her power. She can say, "What's in it for me, if I withdraw? And what will you do if I don't?" Shunning her would, I believe, take that particular power off the table.
At the same time, the party should expect Clinton and supporters to misbehave until the convention and between now and then to distract from the race against McCain. Obama needs to accept that Hillary's not going to bow out gracefully and quickly. The campaign against McCain will be like the presidency--incoming fire from all sides, including some from "friendly" sources. That will just be the nature of this race. Rachel Maddow says that, with one exception, parties with long-contested primaries have lost in the GE since (I don't remember when). What would this party have to do this time to make this election the second expection to Maddow's rule? Obama and his staff figured how to wrest the nomination from Clinton with all her advantages. What can they figure out for a two-fight campaign and for the McCain-Clinton tag team before the convention?
Obama's campaign would also do well to take some of Hillary's talking points very seriously. Her criticism has something to teach him and his campaign. It's beside the point whether he has a problem with working white voters who don't have college degrees. These voters have important things to say to him, so he should meet them, sit down with them, learn from them. On MSNBC last night, Morning Joe recalled Harold Ford's campaigning in Tennessee in the 2006 senatorial race--sitting at a bar with a hunting cap on and talking with people who would never have thought of voting for him if he hadn't talked with them.
So, how did you hear "whoever she is"?