Not a person I speak with lately fails to mention how interminably long this Democratic “primary” is. Comments ranging from, “I wish it were over!” to “It’s getting so dirty” are on the lips and at the blogs of every dedicated Democrat. Have to agree. Back before the Ohio primary I was hoping for Clinton to drop out. Never say die only works when you’re not killing everyone else in the process.
Now, as a woman who’s thrilled to see a woman running for president, this feeling wasn’t without qualms. I’ve always admired Hillary. She’s tenacious. She’s breathtakingly smart. She has cojones the size of tennis balls and still retains an air of overall feminine goodness. (Yes, that sounded sexist – but no other way to put it.) But campaigning brought out the worst in her; like some misogynist’s dream, she’s enacted every nasty female stereotype in the arsenal.
It bothers me to type that. Bothers me to think it.
Yet there’s just no getting around the fact that her campaign, started in shambles, brings out the worst of her ambition and instincts, turns her normal savvy and self-regard into overarching neediness and comes across, at times, as calculated pandering. Is it true? No idea. Just know that it translates into grasping and manipulation – acts not attractive in anyone.
At a point where the Democratic coalition finally seems to galvanize over one issue – the same issue at the heart of every election since 2000 – that Republicans must go and with them, their warmongering, lying and Constitutional abuses – Hillary’s refusal to put party first and personal gain second threatens to permanently splinter the party. It’s not small potatoes, either. This renewed energy and focus from so many Democrats, young and old, comes from a convergence of two points, also both old and young. The old: putting Democrats back into the Executive Branch. The new? The Obama phenomenon.
Democrats haven’t seen a candidate capable of capturing such adoration and imagination, or creating this much passion, since Robert Kennedy. Like it or not – believe in it or not – Obama has managed to do something not seen since those times: bring together a group known for its tendency towards individual desires trumping a larger, collective picture. Young voters are clamoring for Obama; more cynical older folks are swooning. In my own heart, I’ve avoided the hullabaloo, not getting caught-up in demographics, politically correct ideology or passion. This time around, I’ll vote for a Democrat no matter who wins the ticket. Am with the camp that thinks the past eight years have been eight too many. You could put a corpse laying in state on the ticket and I’d just make sure to check the box next to his casket photo-op.
That’s how sick of it all I really am.
Yet, even I can’t help but see what this endless primary is doing: giving momentum to McCain, causing a huge Democratic rift and squabbling, when really what counts is reviving our party and winning this thing. Obama can do that. Hillary. . .cannot. No matter how happy I am to see a woman running for President. No matter how hard I believe she would work to be a good President, Hillary can’t win.
If the Super Delegates place her on the ticket, the Democratic party’s new lifeblood turns instantly anemic. People all super-charged over Obama, people who are canvassing now for him that hadn’t hit the streets in support of anyone since Robert Kennedy, will be gone. It really is that simple. A Super Delegate placement rules-out the desires of a general electorate fed-up and disenchanted with the process. That same group of people who find themselves genuinely drawn to Obama’s message. Will they collectively hold their noses and vote for Hillary, or just abstain in protest?
When passions run this high, my guess is that they’ll do the latter.
Either way, the rift between the Hillary and Obama groups threatens to allow John McCain enough of a margin to slip-in, unnoticed and unwanted. And that’s too big a risk, to me. With our economy in shambles, under the promise of endless war, the last thing we need is another Bush clone in The White House.
