It's Time for Pelosi, Dean, Gore and Edwards to End This Thing

Hillary is now openly going after the redneck vote. And the Republicans are now actively messing in the Democratic primary.

Hillary is no longer trying to get elected President -- in 2008. She is trying to get the nomination for 2012. By poisoning the well so much for Barack Obama that he cannot beat John McCain in the fall.

The damage she is doing to the Demnocratic party with her race-baiting dog whistle campaign is closing in on becoming irreperable.

And Obama is in a box because he wants to actually win in November. He can't go all out negative on Hillary the way the Republicans would because he needs a unified party for the fall campaign. And even if he did go negative, it would undercut the central theme of his campaign -- that he is a new, post partisan politician who wants to bring the country together to solve its problems.

But, if Obama does not fight back hard enough, the media and some Hillary partisans will accuse Obama of being too soft, and not tough enough to take on the Republicans in the Fall.

Let me state this as clearly as I can -- and make a prediction.

John McCain and the Republicans will NOT attack Obama as hard as Hillary has. They cannot do anything worse to him than Hillary already has done. I know this defies conventional wisdom. And people assume that Obama will be raked over the coals by the Republicans.

But, Hillary is running a general election style camapign against Obama, right now. She has become the default Republican in this race.

She is attacking Obama on National security, and using racist dog whistles against him because she is writing off the black vote in the primaries.

There is nothing Obama will see from the Republicans that has not already been thrown at him by Hillary Clinton.

And, ironically, John McCain himself might actually be MORE civil toward Obama than Hillary has been.

About the only thing Hillary has not done is run to the right of Obama on Iraq, and argue that he wants to cut and run. Not overtly, anyway. But you know that's what the 3am add was all about.

So, it is time for Al Gore, John Edwards, Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders to step in and endorse Obama. Not only that, Gore and Edwards in particular must go to Pennsylvania and campaign with Obama.

And Obama needs to campaign outside of the big cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. He needs to calibrate his message to state that Hillary is running on the old politics of dividing us up to win elections, and never following through.

The only way we can win, is if we unite and win together. He should say that Hillary is insulting the great people of Pennsylvania, by cynically playing on their fears and anxieties to gain votes. That he believes the people of Pennsylvania are tired of being divided. Tired of being played against each other. Tired of seeing their hopes and dreams crushed by inaction.

Obama needs to get back to what brought him to this point. Stop the petty bickering with Hillary and just subtly portray her as a sad, pathetic loser who is desperate.

Obama needs to win Pennsylvania and put Hillary -- and the rest of us -- out of her and our misery.

ADDENDUM: An effective campaign ad Obama might use is to analogize his campaign to that of a successful football team. Players of all races, work together in the trenches, fighting for each other, bleeding for each other and exerying a great effort to achievce a common goal. That is what he wants to see for thsi country. Everyone striving together for a common goal -- and to win.

If, by some miracle, he could get Pittsburgh Steelers Jerome Bettis [who is recently retired but still vey popular in the state] and Ben Roethlesberger to appear in the campaign ad with him to emphasize the point, it would have even more impact. You could even have them all out in some park throwing around a football to humanize Obama.

THAT would be a POSITIVE dog whistle for the lunchpail, white working class in Pennsylvania.

My my keyeboard, to David Axelrod's eyes.

UPDATE: Thanks to Sheddhead in the comments for these --

John Edwards
c/o John Edwards for President
410 Market Street
Suite 400
Chapel Hill, NC 27516

Howard Dean
c/o Democratic National Committee
430 S. Capitol St. SE
Washington, DC 20003

Nancy Pelosi
Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

Al Gore
2100 West End Ave, Ste 620
Nashville, TN 37203

•  This can really be simplified

  A democratic candidate is using race as a wedge issue against another democratic candidate. That, on it's own, requires party intervention.

  A Rethug using the race card against a Democrat is bad enough, this is a whole magnitude of worse.

  by stevej on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:23:28 AM PDT

  •  you'd think so right?

    Even if they didn't force Hillary to concede, wouldn't you think lots of little birdies would be telling her to knock it the hell off right about now?  Maybe they are, I suppose - I hope so.  The ramifications are very bad, no matter who gets the nomination, so they certainly should be.

    by American in Kathmandu on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:31:28 AM PDT

    •  I'm also waiting to hear

      from the 'Tom Brokaw 50' superdeleagate who were on the verge of declaring support for Obama. Now would be a really good time.

      by stevej on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:36:48 AM PDT

      •  The Obama campaign...

        Denied this a week ago.

        by RichM on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:43:47 AM PDT

        •  Don't see what Brokaw

          had to gain by lying.

          by stevej on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:53:10 AM PDT

          •  I don't either...

            But either it was going to happen and it was held back because of Hillary's 'victory' on March 4 or his sources are incorrect.

            by RichM on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:58:32 AM PDT

      •  Yes!!! That May Be the Silver Bullet....

        I'm not at all sure the Clintons will now heed voices of reason---all they comprehend is raw power.  A significant Super endorsement now that Mississippi has played out--by more than 20% in spite of fairly-strenuous Clinton efforts there---would be the show of force we need right now.

        Ya Basta!!!  Dayenu!!!  Enuff Already!!!

        by serrano on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:45:22 AM PDT

      •  My impression...

        Is that they're quite real and the reason Pelosi asked everyone to hold up last week.

        I'm hopeful in my impression that the double-whammy yesterday of Pelosi saying HRC blew the combined ticket (quite publicly, i might add - she seemed quite snarky about it to boot) along with the Dem Congressional pushback on a FLA revote yesterday is combined to pad the floor for some movement from the Supers now.

        I can't stress this enough: i know we want this to be over now, but they have to play their hand, if they are indeed going to, in a way that doesn't humiliate HRC or her supporters.  The party needs some mending to get us past this phase, and pushing her out in a way that most of us would applaud at the moment isn't going to help.

        My $.02.

        by toothwalker on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 08:59:07 AM PDT

  •  Hillary's Two Failures

    1. Despite a system that was setup to favor an establishemnt candidate like Hillary, she is LOSING, and the margin of her defeat grows wee by week.

    2. At this point, a measurable segment of her primary voters (inflating her OH victory, and softening the extent of her defeat in TX and Mississippi) are participating with the expressed purpose of damaging the Democrat Party in the near and long term.  This is PRECISELY the situation the super delegate system was created to counter and prevent, not rally around.

    by flocal on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:43:13 AM PDT

    •  asdf

      This is PRECISELY the situation the super delegate system was created to counter and prevent, not rally around.

      I think that we will start to see this very soon. If not soon definitely sometime before the convention.

      by stevej on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:52:25 AM PDT

•  Richardson, Edwards, Biden, Gore, ...

  al need to step in
  silence and inaction at this point will speak volumesand will further divide the party

  and you can say hellow to President McBush

  by oscarfrye on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:25:49 AM PDT

•  silence is the worst thing that can happen

  The media needs to confirm Obama is a winner a few more times.

  The GOTV requires interest.  Be interested don't be rabid.

  by 88kathy on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:27:35 AM PDT

•  If I closed my eyes and listened to the attacks

  coming from the HRC campaign, and her surrogates, I would swear they came from the Republicans hell bent on destroying the Democratic nominee.

  There is nothing left for her to throw at him, racism, youthful drug use, empty suit, unprepared for the CIC, lying about his past record, and general denigration of his character, even while claiming he would make a fine VEEP.

  And it has not worked.  The only thing she has left is to hope he or his campaign will make some horrible gaffe and she can use that against him to prove how worthy she is.  

  She is destroying the party and her attempts to destroy Obama have boomeranged and they are now destroying her.

  She needs to bow out gracefully before she gets thrown out on her ass.  

  by Do Tell on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:29:12 AM PDT

•  FAT CHANCE

  Two things. First, the Dem party leaders will not try and step in and stop the process. Second, if they do the Clintons will ignore them. The only way this ends is when Obama has a list of 2,025 names in the NYT of delegates, pledged and super, who are committed to vote for him. It will not end one second sooner.

  by VClib on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:29:27 AM PDT

  •  Clinton can ignore them all she wants.

    The point is, it will send a message to all the other superdelegates, and to the Amertican people that Hillary is not approved of.

    by Hesiod on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:31:57 AM PDT

•  It has come to a point

  where silence is complicity in Hillary's antics.  It would be one thing if the race were truly even (as the Times claims again today) but it's not.  Obama will win the pledged delegatate battle.  The loser of the contest is being held in the race by superdelegate support.  And she is throwing firebombs inside the house.  

  Key endorsements would be good.  But the fact that 250 superdelegates are still allowing their names to sit in her column is really not cool.  A block of them switches sides and this would be over long before PA.

  by Sun dog on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:30:10 AM PDT

  •  Time to save that list and re-title it:

    Elected officials to be challenged in future primaries

    by MingPicket on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 07:04:10 AM PDT

•  Not sure of the proper saluations, but

  Here are the addresses I came up with:

  John Edwards
  c/o John Edwards for President
  410 Market Street
  Suite 400
  Chapel Hill, NC 27516

  Howard Dean
  c/o Democratic National Committee
  430 S. Capitol St. SE
  Washington, DC 20003

  Nancy Pelosi
  Office of the Speaker
  H-232, US Capitol
  Washington, DC 20515

  Al Gore
  2100 West End Ave, Ste 620
  Nashville, TN 37203

  While I'll email if I can find those - I'm hand writing letters, too.

  by sheddhead on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:30:18 AM PDT

  •  I came on this thread looking for this list.

    thanks. We need a letter writing campaign now!

    by snowbird42 on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:42:27 AM PDT

  •  One more, important to me

    Pres. Jimmy Carter
    c/o The Carter Center
    One Copenhill
    453 Freedom Parkway
    Atlanta, GA 30307

    by sheddhead on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:53:02 AM PDT

•  I'm giving them...

  24 hours to do something.  It would be an absolute black eye to the party if KO has to go on the TV and say something out in the public forum that Dean, et. al should be saying to the Hillary campaign today.

  by RichM on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:57:24 AM PDT

•  It's high time

  for the party elders to step in and stop Hilary's surrogate Republican campaign.  It is killing the party's chances in November, and she knows it.

  by Captain Nimrod on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 07:13:48 AM PDT

•  Getting beat up

  By the bully at school is not nearly as damaging to the psyche as getting beat up by your parents. The analogy stands here. Clinton is waging domestic warfare on the home turf, and destroying the party in the process. She's a traitor to the Democratic party, and any Democrat that continues to support her or give her a silent pass is complicit, and is no Democrat.

  End this. Now.

  by alkalinesky on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 08:07:42 AM PDT