Hold On There Skippy, This Race Is Not Over
Fri Mar 28, 2008 at 10:22:30 PM PDT
Currently, on the recommended list, there is a diary where the argument is made that we should be focusing more on McCain because, and this is a quote, Hillary's "already lost".
Now, I fully agree with many of the sentiments made in that diary, and those of Rachel Maddow who I admire greatly. Especially the one about winning gracefully. I believe wholly that the venomousness of some of the attacks on Clinton are actually hurting Obama and don't accurately represent the kind of campaign he's trying to run. And more than anything, we're going to need these people in the general election. So I'm all for winning gracefully, and trying to be like Barack and heal this party.
But the part about Hillary having already lost is both incorrect and dangerous at this time in the campaign.
There is one scenario where Clinton could take this thing. If somehow, and I know it is still unlikely, she is able to win the popular vote. This is a possibility. Then, all the arguments we (or at least I) have been making about superdelegates not overturning the will of the people flip to Hillary's advantage.
I can hear gears grinding: But...but...but, the delegates.... No buts. If Hillary wins the popular vote (EDIT: Or what CNN claims as the popular vote), which is not impossible, she will have a strong case to make that the superdelegates should go her way to ensure the "will of the people." This case may be based on complete bullshit. But if media adopts the narrative that Hillary has won the popular vote, superdelegates who are looking for any excuse to go her way may do so.
Now, what are the odds of this. Incredibly low. But not zero. And that's all we need to know. This race is not over. It should be, but it's not.
Keep in mind, I wrote a diary three weeks before the Ohio Texas primaries, which was largely ignored because the consensus hadn't caught up yet, that Hillary should drop out then. Right after Wisconsin. I saw her chances as being so low that I thought, and still think, she should do what's best for the party and drop out.
But she didn't. And, as far as I can tell, she isn't going to. So we have to keep fighting for every single vote. Period. We have to keep sending money, keep phone banking, keep attacking the Clinton campaign (gracefully if possible), and we have to keep reminding ourselves that politics is never, ever safe.
And I just want to say one more thing about the venom. Obama has tried, I believe, to keep his campaign out of the mud. He is wise and thinks of the general election when we will need those Hillary supporters to join up against McCain.
I have tried to follow suit. I have not written harshly, as I see it, about Hillary, instead trying to 'Be like Barack'. And when Joe Buck writes that Bill and Hillary "aren't evil", and we need enough good will remaining to pull the party back together", I so want to agree.
But for the last two weeks, not contiguously, but steadily, I have been researching "NAFTA-gate" and how a story about the Clinton campaign contacting the Canadian embassy to brush off the NAFTA rhetoric morphed into a false story about the Obama campaign doing the same in only 24 hours. This led me into the hive of Mark Penn and his companies, WPP, Burson Marsteller, and Hill and Knowlton. I never found a connection between Penn and NAFTA-gate, though the connections between Penn and company and the Harper government are interesting.
But what I did find, makes me sick. That people calling themselves Democrats would associate, much less employ this guy... I don't know how you define evil, but from what I have found, I think Mark Penn and his companies should meet any decent, liberal or progressive's criteria. I'll post some version of that story here, probably under the title Six Degrees of Mark Penn.
But I can tell you now, these people cannot have the White House. I'll add a period to that too. And by the way, they also work for John McCain.
So yes, let's stay after McCain. But our highest priority right now is making Barack Obama the 2008 Democratic nominee for president of the United States.
