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Question to Superdelegates and Democrats: When is Enough – Enough?
Is everyone watching the same Democratic Primary that most Americans and the world are watching? This question begs to be asked because the political spinning from Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign seems to be capturing more attention from the media than the basic facts. In case anyone needs to be reminded, when asked if Senator Barack Obama could win against John McCain in November, the answer was, “Yes, Yes, Yes!” Now, Senator Clinton is again trying to make the same case of “electability” with regards to Obama after her win in Pennsylvania. I think it is time to look at the facts here rather than listen to a desperate candidate hoping to finagle her way into becoming the elected Democratic nominee.
First, let’s take a look at the Pennsylvania win. Senator Obama was relatively unknown to Pennsylvanians and down by more than 20 points just a few weeks ago. To say that he has made amazing progress in the state would be an understatement. He managed to cut the deficit by more than a half in just 6 weeks time. Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania had already made the comment that a black man could not be expected to do well in his state. Nevertheless, Obama got over 1 million votes out of 2.2 million from the democratic voters in the state. Those that are registered Independents did not have the opportunity to vote. The spin that the Clinton campaign would like the world and the superdelegates to believe is that Obama can’t win a key state like Pennsylvania. However, the exit polls tell us something that starkly contrasts this opinion.
Clinton won Pennsylvania because of the votes of women, and more specifically, white women. White women made up 47% of the vote in Pennsylvania and Hillary picked up a whopping 32% more women than Obama picked up. Why is this important? Hillary is a woman and, well, John McCain is not. So, when you look at the issues that are important to women in an election, you will see the majority of these women move into Obama’s camp by November as there will not be a woman running for the office of president at that time (assuming that Obama wins the Democratic Primaries). Obama can be further encouraged by the fact that nearly two-thirds of voters thought that Clinton attacked Obama unfairly. This is significant because one can deduce that these voters do not have feelings against Obama as much as they have feelings towards Clinton. In fact, another poll showed that Clinton and Obama were almost even (both at two-thirds of voters) in how people thought about them as being "in touch with people like you". Obama also carried the day in voters who that he was honest (67%) vs. Clinton (57% of voters). This again shows that people voted for Clinton because they were for Clinton and not because they were against Obama. Even of those white voters who said they voted based on race (13% of voters); more than half still said they would back Obama in a general election.
Superdelegates need to consider the following. Although Clinton is stating that she won states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, and New York, Obama has competed in all of these states with the exception of New York, where Clinton is currently the Senator. On the other side, Clinton has lost by landslides in many of the states that Obama has won.
Secondly, Obama has won the hearts of young people all across the country. They are registering and voting in record numbers and are excited about the party. Both candidates are helping to register new voters, but these young voters have been highly prone to vote for Obama. Democrats need these new voters for the November election if they are going to win against McCain.
The case that can also be made is that Senator Clinton is winning against a candidate that has remained cordial throughout the primaries although he has plenty of ammunition to play with. On the other hand, Clinton has had to resort to damaging attacks that could cripple Democrats in the fall. Let’s make no mistake. Democrats are not as enthused over the candidates as they were in the beginning of the year when most would vote for either candidate happily.
Since we are on that topic of discussion, it would definitely be worth discussing these debilitating tactics of late that have been largely brought on by the Clinton campaign. There are two parties in this election to be reckoned with. Let’s consider the Democratic party as Team Democrat and the Republican party as Team Republican. Let’s also consider Obama and Clinton as two quarterbacks vying for the starting position on Team Democrat. Team Democrat is largely favored to win the Super Bowl, but there has been a disruptive presence on the team during the course of the year leading up to the Super Bowl.
Quarterback Obama won the starting position after amazing wins during the course of the year and Quarterback Clinton became the backup after being demoted to that role for poor performances in early contests. Instead of trying to compete for the starting position on her own merit, she begins to try to sow discord among other team members and talk negatively about Quarterback Obama behind his back. Some team members side with her, but most are happy because the team keeps winning with Quarterback Obama at the helm. When this doesn’t work, Clinton decides to attack Obama’s personal life to create havoc among fans and hopefully garner a few boos during some of the contests. Obama loses a couple contests and Quarterback Clinton proclaims he is unfit to start in the Super Bowl. Quarterback Obama; however, comes back and wins two landslide victories against smaller opponents.
Now, the team is headed to the playoffs and looking pretty good. So, instead of trying to win the starting job by honorable and hard-fought means, Quarterback Clinton pulls a Tonya Harding and decides to speak out more aggressively against Quarterback Obama in the media. She also sends her friends or surrogates over to Obama’s house with baseball bats to club him around the knees, hoping to cripple him before the next contest. Eventually, a bruised Obama loses a big game by a considerable but still respectable margin. Quarterback Clinton proclaims, “See. I told you he can’t win the big game.” The coaches, Harold Dean, Nancy Pelosi, and Al Gore, to name a few, sit and watch what is going on but are too afraid to do anything because Quarterback Clinton is married to one of the junior owners of the team and they don’t want to offend him or his “legacy”. In addition, a few stockholders on the team have threatened to discontinue supporting the team if any of the coaches interfere with the team squabbling.
I propose to you that if this scenario were being played out in a different arena, Quarterback Clinton would have been kicked off the team or at least traded to the opposing side. Some believe she has already started making a case to be traded with her negative comments on Obama, while in the same breath praising McCain as one who has passed the Commander-in-Chief test. She has made her colleague her opponent rather than her competitor. She risks causing her whole team to lose in an effort to further her own selfish desire to lead the country. The only people that have the authority to put a stop to this are the superdelegates and the people. Currently, most of the people have spoken and two-thirds of the states, as well as millions of voters have backed Senator Obama (hundreds of thousands more than Clinton).
The question to the remaining undecided superdelegates is “When is enough – enough?” If the undecided superdelegates came out now and made their choices known, then the contest may end sooner than later. Each candidate would know exactly how many delegates they need to claim the nomination. Although we hear claims of unity in November, this is more of a hope than a certainty. Democrats and all Americans deserve leadership that will put this mess to bed now and not later. If McCain wins the White House and Democrats later lose control of the White House, it can all be traced back to undecided superdelegates and weak Democratic leadership. As many have already echoed, Democrats will only have themselves to blame.
Gameboy11
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