“Pish-tosh, you say, and you’re probably right. But let’s play a little. Let’s say the elders of the Democratic Party decide, when the primaries end, that neither Obama nor Clinton is viable. Let’s also assume—and this may be a real stretch—that such elders are strong and smart enough to act. All they’d have to do would be to convince a significant fraction of their superdelegate friends, maybe fewer than 100, to announce that they were taking a pass on the first ballot at the Denver convention, which would deny the 2,025 votes necessary to Obama or Clinton. What if they then approached Gore and asked him to be the nominee, for the good of the party—and suggested that he take Obama as his running mate?”
Comedy Central’s Indecision 2008 web site recaps the recent Bill Clinton meltdown at a meeting with Super Delegates in California…
The former president then went on a tirade that ran from the media’s unfair treatment of Hillary to questions about the fairness of the votes in state caucuses that voted for Obama. It ended with him asking delegates to imagine what the reaction would be if Obama was trailing by just 1 percent and people were telling him to drop out…
When he finally wound down, Bill was asked what message he wanted the delegates to take away from the meeting.
The answer, obviously: Make my wife president, or I will eat your face.
“One of the ways the Clinton campaign was insuring that her nomination would be wrapped-up two weeks ago was by paying college students in Columbia, South Carolina five hundred bucks a week to canvas for her. Incredibly, Clinton’s campaign hired Obama supporters (who probably weren’t Hillary’s best sales people, but hey, everyone needs a paycheck to help with tuition). Either way, as young black students they were actively courted and enlisted into the Clinton campaign, regardless of who they’d pledged to vote for.
When students were telling me about this (and other election irregularities) it surprised me that candidates still ran campaigns that way — that they weren’t all grassroots. That people didn’t volunteer their time because they believed in their particular candidate’s vision. That campaigns threw money at students (regardless of their voting preference) to do their bidding. Money talks.
Clinton still appears to be doing things the old way (including hiring and retaining staffers based on loyalty instead of competence) and the next few weeks/months seem less about polls and campaigns and an election, and more about a perspective shift, not just for Hillary, but for the nation.”
