Now that we have seen the very passionate, very aggressive, very clear in her support for Sen. Obama (the Next President of the United States of America!) speech from Sen. Clinton the Dog is wondering if we are seeing a political head fake. This might be too clever by half, but stick with the Dog on this.
We know that summer is a usually a time where most voters are more interested in the Olympics or the Pennant Race in MLB or even the recalcitrant brown spot in the middle of the lawn than the presidential politics. It is a time of framing and dirty tricks precisely for this reason. But this summer has been a little different. We had a primary process that was not over until the beginning of June, so there was more awareness going into the summer. Then we had the PUMA’s pop up. They got plenty of air time claiming that they would not support Sen. Obama, no, no, no, never! This went on, even though Sen. Clinton appeared in Unity, NH with Sen. Obama and gave her unequivocal support. It kept a story line going that would get play on every network everywhere, right up to this week and the convention.
Then we get Sen. Clintons speech. Let’s face it, like her, hate her, it does not matter, everyone of us can say she not only hit that one out of the park, she put it in orbit (in fact the speech has been spotted by the crew of the International Space Station, they are thinking of mounting a recovery mission)! This speech once and for all hammered any rational for actual Dems to withhold their support right into the ground. It is the story on every front page of every news paper in Denver and around the country. Now comes the tricky part.
What if this was the plan all along? There have been times this summer where the Dog (and others) wondered why Sen. Clinton was not doing more to bank the fires of rebellion by her most ardent supporters. Could this have been a plan? Think about it for a second, which is the more compelling story? Sen. Clinton unifies the party in June, hits hard at those that would organize in her name, with out her support, and then attends the Convention where she gives a good solid speech.
Or she makes a good solid attempt at unity, but does not really follow it up. There are leaks that there are worries about the Convention, negotiations are on going, there is a concern about her speech, and then we get what we had last night; a full throated vow of support for Sen. Obama and a blistering attack on the true opponent, Sen. McCain.
The first is ho hum and would not make any splash nor help in the beginning of the fall campaign, the second keeps the supporters of both candidates engaged and generates tons and tons of free press all summer long. It also sets the Convention up to be watched by more voters (mostly in the hopes of seeing a wreck, just like NASCAR). It makes what is often an event that is interesting to only insiders that much more interesting to the average voter.
There is also the aspect of making Sen. McCain’s campaign spend time and resources on a constituency that he really can not win. After all if you are a Dem or a woman or a woman Dem, there is nothing good for you from a McCain presidency. Roe would be overturned, work place protections for women and minorities would continue to be eroded, and the country would continue to have a dysfunctional healthcare system. These are all issues that supporters of Sen. Clinton hold dear; so even if they talk one way, by Nov. 4th they would be coming home to the Democratic Nominee. But by letting them give full voice to their complaints, by not tamping them down in the early to mid summer as conventional wisdom would require, that means that the McCain campaign has to reach out to this mirage of persuadable voters. Even better it gives a natural avenue to highlight the issues where Sen. McCain is a disaster for this particular voter group, while tying up resources that could be used to attack Sen. Obama. It also limits the topics that Sen. Obama can be attacked on, as this group is not going to accept some of the standard tropes about Dem candidates and still vote for Sen. McCain.
Now, the Dog is not saying this is what happened. After all, there is all that polling about Clinton voters who say they are going to vote for Sen. McCain; still it is the kind of political rope-a-dope that both Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama are capable of. We have no idea what they have discussed, but there is one thing that we do know, neither of these politicos are the kind to waste a chance to stick it to their opposition.
So, what does that mean for the other Clinton speech tonight? Well a couple of days ago the Dog posted a heartfelt plea to former President Clinton to give the speech of a lifetime in support of Sen. Obama, both for the Party’s sake and for the sake of his legacy. We know that this is a man with a continental size ego (how could not you not have one when most of your time in politics has been spent as an executive and the President?). We also know that he has been less than happy that he was branded as racist (at least in perception, if not actuality) for the comments that he made during the primary. So the story line has been that he might not give the kind of speech that would seal any lingering divide in the party.
If the Dog is right (or even close) about this rope-a-dope strategy, then all these fears are but smoke and mirrors. The Dog is willing to go out on a limb (at least a little ways) and predict what we will see tonight. This speech will be the Big Dog in all his seductive glory. One of the Dog’s friends always said that President Clinton was the most seductive politician he had ever seen. This is the President Clinton we will see tonight. Expect him to praise Sen. Clinton, a little. Expect him to pass the torch to Sen. Obama and expect him to light Sen. McCain up like Time Square on New Years Eve. The Dog predicts that tomorrows headlines will be all about how there is no fissure in the Democratic Party and all the trouble this means for poor old Sen. McCain (Cloud-Yeller, AZ)!
That is where the Dog is on this issue, what about you? The floor is yours.