Over
this RFK thing it appears Barack Obama overplayed his hand.
The Ragin’ Cajun’ King, Chester James Carville Jr., blackened red
fish-faced with Louisiana ire spiced things up Southern style this
morning on Good Morning America when he hinted that all bets were
off as to Senator Clinton’s pulling out of the race following the June 3rd
primaries.
Citing the Obama Camps shenanigans of issuing a statement following
Senator Clinton’s raising the specter of RFK’s assassination in an
interview with the South Dakota Argus Leader and thus fanning the
hot sauce fires of the Clinton gaffe, Carville smiled but his voice was
black peppered with threat when he said,” The way that they handled this
South Dakota thing was not helpful at all…this was not a good thing!”
If the Clinton Campaign was looking for an excuse to take their argument
to the August Convention, Carville seemed to be signaling that the Obama
Campaign by overplaying its hand and inserting itself into the fray had
given Hillary cause. Never kick a good woman when she’s down, the saying goes, but the
Obama Camp did, salting the wounds of the nearly-defeated Hillary
Clinton when they might have left well-enough alone.
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
Frankly, I don’t think Clinton needed an excuse to take her fight to
Denver and I think she owes it to her supporters to do just that.
Moreover, she might actually do the Democratic Party a favor by seeing
this thing through, and hopefully, saving the Party from itself.
There is a chili powder keg of emotions simmering in the stew pot of the
Democratic voters that needs to be purged and a good old fashioned floor
fight might just settle the differences between the two warring factions
and unify the party. Without that fight it’s doubtful that unity is
possible.
Who would be better than Hillary Clinton to start that fight? After
years of service to her Democrack-Up Party, the Party has treated
Clinton and her husband with nothing but disrespect.
Hungry to get the Clinton’s off the political stage and take the Party
to the left, both the Party and
the Obama Camp have, as the Ragin’ Cagin’ so aptly hinted this morning,
left HRC in the enviable position of having nothing to lose.
Despite the
polls clearly showing that Clinton is the candidate with the best chance
of winning the general election against McCain, with statistics that
show that Obama cannot capture the votes of core constituencies of the
Democratic Party, with the popular vote soon to be added to the list of
reasons Clinton should be the candidate, the Party leaders are willing
to ignore the reality and anoint Obama their nominee.
On Saturday, May 31st the party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee
will meet to try to solve the problems of what to do about Florida and
Michigan, the two states stripped last year of their delegates to the
Democratic National Convention because both states broke party rules by
moving their primaries up to early in the election year. Clinton won
both contests by large margins.
If a compromise is not meted out that is satisfactory to both
candidates, which is likely as, thus far, Senator Obama has done all he
can to keep Senator Clinton from getting those votes and because the
Party insiders are in his camp, the controversy would go to the
186-member Credentials Committee, which convenes in July or August. The
results of that meeting will have to be voted on at the August
Convention.
You can bet if it comes to that, the convention will be a veritable craw
daddy of a food fight unlike anything seen since the fight at the 1968
Democratic Convention. Again, Clinton with nothing to lose has
everything to gain by insisting on the full seating of those delegates,
which makes her a garlic powder of dynamite the Party should fear, and
she should relish that fight.
One thing that Clinton could gain from refusing to stand down despite
the pressure of the big boys is the respect if not of the Party, of
that of the regular folks she has made her cause célèbre in the
waning days of the primary season.
Win or lose on the floor of the convention, she will have stood up for
her constituents and she will be able to walk away from this fight with
her dignity intact.
And be recorded in the history books as the true
"change" candidate, a politician who put her own political future on the
line to make sure everyone had their voice heard, a heroine with a
loyal and powerful constituency who will stand behind her in whatever
she decides to do with the rest of her life even if she isn’t the
Party’s nominee.
I guaranteeeeeeeee it.