{"id":12544,"date":"2008-03-27T14:15:06","date_gmt":"2008-03-27T21:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/03\/27\/are-democrats-about-to-self-destruct-yet-again.html"},"modified":"2008-03-27T14:15:06","modified_gmt":"2008-03-27T21:15:06","slug":"are_democrats_about_to_se","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/03\/27\/are_democrats_about_to_se.html","title":{"rendered":"Are Democrats about to self-destruct yet again?<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

As the nomination race comes down to the wire, I keep hearing more and more rumblings about how the Democratic internecine warfare is likely to end up splitting the party and giving the election to McCain. Granted, there’s still a lot of time and campaigning to go until November, but as both campaigns (though mostly Clinton’s) keep slinging mud at each other, the Dems are facing going into the full blown election campaign with — well — a muddy candidate.<\/p>\n

CNN at lunch was pointing to some opinion polls indicating not-insubstantial (probably election-swinging) minorities of Dems who say they’ll vote for McCain if their favorite candidate doesn’t get the nod. I think those numbers are exaggerated — just as rhetoric about GOPers voting for Hillary if McCain got the nod was exaggerated — but even if the votes don’t shift, they may simply sit out, or at the least be tepid supporters (“guess I gotta hold my nose and vote for that Other Person”), neither of which will serve the Democratic nominee well.<\/p>\n

Heck, I’ll admit that even though I’ll vote for Clinton before McCain in a heartbeat, I’ve seen too much of her not-very-nice side to do so with as few misgivings as I had at the caucuses back a few months. It will be more of a vote against <\/em>(against GOP domination of the executive, against McCain’s various flaws) than a vote for<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And, of course, those ill feelings and lack of enthusiasm will tend to spill over into Congressional races as well.<\/p>\n

Ugh.<\/p>\n

And, in many ways, the guilty party is primarily Clinton. The numbers make it highly unlilkely that she can catch Obama in delegates or popular vote count before the convention. The best she can hope for is for Obama to stumble, or to win an insiders fight over super-delegates at the Convention. Neither outcome helps the party, or the country, only her. (I’m discounting the conspiracy rumors that she’s out to ruin Obama’s chances against McCain, with an eye toward running herself again in 2012.)<\/p>\n

Is she really that anxious to play spoiler, or to win a Pyrhhic battle but then lose the war? If so, that would seem an even greater indictment of her suitability to run the country.<\/p>\n

Do the Clintons really want to risk becoming the Naders of 2008?<\/a>
Shooting Herself in the Toe?<\/a>
Democratic race over? Clinton doesn’t think so<\/a>
Is Al Gore the Answer?<\/a> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the nomination race comes down to the wire, I keep hearing more and more rumblings about how the Democratic internecine warfare is likely to end up splitting the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2008"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11740,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/02\/12\/the_simple_president.html","url_meta":{"origin":12544,"position":0},"title":"The “Simple” President","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-Feb-08 6:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm sure that's not quite what Dubya meant, but it's amusing to hear his comment in a Fox News interview: \"You're the pundit. I'm just a simple president.\" Heh. Actually,...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12909,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/09\/poll_position_3.html","url_meta":{"origin":12544,"position":1},"title":"Poll position","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 9-Sep-08 2:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a hard post for me to write, because, rational or not, I keep expecting Disaster to Strike, and Defeat to be Seized the Teeth of Victory -- whether...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19079,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/02\/election-potpourri.html","url_meta":{"origin":12544,"position":2},"title":"Election Potpourri","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 2-Nov-10 10:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I am still trying to figure out why Kentucky vote Rand Paul (R\/TP) as their new Senator. How he will represent the people of Kentucky remains a mystery to me. On the other hand, it looks like we won't have any (known) SS war re-enactors in Congress this year, nor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2010"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2010","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2010"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/vote.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":134832,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/22\/aint-til-fat-lady-doesnt-worry-medicaid-cut-off.html","url_meta":{"origin":12544,"position":3},"title":"It ain’t over ’til the Fat Lady doesn’t worry about her Medicaid being cut off","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 22-Sep-17 2:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, it's great that John McCain seems to have thrown a wrench into the Graham-Cassidy Repeal-and-not-really-Replace mess. But three things to consider: There's still a week-plus before the end of the reconciliation period. Plenty of time for someone to cut some deals to get McCain, or Paul, or any other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/mccain.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12358,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/05\/21\/obama_08_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":12544,"position":4},"title":"Obama ’08","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 21-May-08 2:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Barring some unexpected catastrophe (or an even-they-can't-be-so-stupid self-destructive rules change by the Democratic National Committee), it looks like Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President in November.\u00a0...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12733,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/10\/08\/dave_does_the_election_mi.html","url_meta":{"origin":12544,"position":5},"title":"***Dave Does the Election – Midweek Report","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Oct-08 6:33am","format":false,"excerpt":"Biggest news on the election trail in the last day or so was not the\u00a0debate\u00a0(initial snap polls show Obama won handily, but regardless, that he didn't lose heavily means the...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}