The Exit is the final Casualty - Democratic Underground

grantcart

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Sat May-24-08 04:16 AM
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The Exit is the final Casualty

A seemingly innocent comment is brutally revealing.

The real casualty of Senator Clinton's prolonged fall from the competitive race was a graceful exit that would have been of mutual benefit to both candidates and to the party in general. Senator Clinton's attempts to compare the lengthy and exhausting campaign with earlier campaigns was not only fictional in everything but the month (the other campaigns had short competitive primary seasons as opposed to the lengthy warm up and extended primary season we have endured) but also tasteless, offensive and horrific in its imagery all in a single phrase.

"We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," she said, dismissing calls to drop out".

She was advancing one of her last three reasons for clinging to the end

1)"I am staying in because anything can happen". It appeared not to be Boy Scout preparedness but a crass opportunism for advancing personal ambition over great tragedies that was presented in a stunningly frank and revealing attempt to justify staying in an apparently futile campaign.

2) Its a Civil Rights Crusade. While others try and force her out she is the Rosa Parks for women Presidential candidates.

3) Counting Every Vote. Stopping those that hate elections she is standing up against the vote haters just like they are in Zimbabwe.

Her attempt was to undermine Obama's legitimacy by portraying the results as unfair and undemocratic and that the only way to fix the injustice was to have a combined ticket - by adding her as the Vice President all of the objections and insinuations would be eliminated.

Her comments have created an irreconcilable divide between the various parts of the party that support Obama and her final group of hardcore die hard supporters. They honestly believe that this is a contrived controversy while the rest of the party is somewhere between the range of incredulity at the clumsiness of the gaffe to shock at the prospect of someone contemplating advancing their career with the benefit of a political assassination - a subliminal fear quietly held by a very wide range of Obama supporters (and one that apparently was strong enough to prevent the Powell family from signing on to a Presidential campaign).

The question of "why now" has been facing both campaigns for sometime.

The Obama campaign has had to justify why it was running now from the beginning and features it in every stump speech with a reference to Dr. King's 'fierce urgency of now'. For the Clinton's there has been a long question of "why do you stay in the race now".

It is hard to remember the chronology sometimes but actually the question has been raised on an almost daily basis since Super Tuesday. Way back on February 14th Senator Schumer felt that it was a substantive issue that it needed to be addressed:

In an article ironically titled

Schumer on Avoiding a 'Self-Destructive' End to Clinton Vs. Obama

http://www.observer.com/2008/schumer-avoiding-self-destructive-end-clinton-vs-obama
She won my state. I know how good she is. I was the first Senator to support her."

But he also said he doubted that one candidate would stay on long after it became clear he or she could not win the nomination.

"The number one thing that people worry about is that the candidates will cut each other up and make it harder to win the general," he said. "But I think that is not going to happen. Because everyone cares about winning so much. Not only the candidates, but the electorate. So if one candidate is doing something that is regarded as really self-destructive, of the ability to win, that's really going to hurt them."

"It would widely be regarded negatively in the electorate," he said.

That was Schumer speaking on February 14th.

The most unprepared overly prepared candidate in history

Not ready with a message. Not ready for Iowa or Super Tuesday. Not ready for caucus states or her own firewall states. It has been a campaign whose message was that of superior experience and organizational skill but whose reality is that they have been organizational nightmare's on both strategy, message and field operations.

And now completely unprepared for the exit they offer up a continuation campaign that is as grueling and nihilistic as "Groundhog Day" was fresh and uplifting. No plan for the exit except just not quiting until they get what they want.

While Senator Obama has geared down his campaign and slowed down the Super Delegate roll out so he could carefully control the timing of his pledged delegate victory, he is also apparently timing the Super Delegate endorsements so that he will clinch the nomination on June 3rd with victories in South Dakota and Montana. Senator Clinton's exit has more of the feel of a teenager being found out at Lover's Lane trying to justify why they are still out so late at night, making up the excuses while the adults patiently wait with an embarrassing silence.

A faithful remnant is completely unapologetic

A small die hard group of followers find the comments slightly awkward, possibly but certainly does not compare to some percieved Obama gaffe (with always the predictable desperate comparison to McClurkin). And this only serves to harden the feelings between the two camps. Just when feelings should be warming and converging on the electoral realities - suspicions and distaste is as high as ever between the the vast majority and a small group of Ubher partisans.

We are at that point that too many families have faced. While many supporters have made, or are preparing to make the transition for the General Election, a small embittered cadre has determined to not cooperate regardless of the cost in the General Election. Failure for the Democrats is preferred because it will validate their opinion that Senator Obama never had a chance. And so like a family that is facing self destruction it appears that it will also be necessary simply to divorce the final hard core faithful as any attempt at reconciliation has been compromised.

The Final Exit

What can happen when Senator Clinton now attempts to concede? It will be received with frosty indifference at best and more likely with a restrained contempt by those that still perceive her as a dangerous force that could still have a negative impact on the General Election. The possibility of appointing someone to the Vice Presidency who actually contemplates staying in a race because they could profit from the leader's demise seems now to be too macabre to consider.

Senator Clinton was not ready for this campaign and now seems totally unprepared for the transition to end the campaign. At least the party will have seen clearly which candidate was more prepared for all of the contingencies.

One can only wonder what type of speech they are contemplating and whether the Clinton campaign is aware of how great the skepticism will be in the country in general and the party in particular when Senator Clinton tries now to show what a loyal party member she is and how enthusiastic she is in supporting somebody besides herself in the General Election. While an effective concession could have lifted her and Obama and the party that ship has now sailed.

Having undermined Senator Obama's historic campaign and painted herself into a corner it was tough to see how Senator Clinton was going to reverse herself on the general issue of fairness and congratulate Senator Obama on a well fought campaign. Now her concession will almost certainly be seen as a cynical ploy by one of the most narcissistically self absorbed and ultimately superficial politicians who when provided with huge advantages in power, name awareness, wealth, decades of connections dramatically underperformed.

The campaign bookends will ironically be seen as the mishandled IWR vote and explanation on the one hand and the justification for continuing beyond a realistic chance on the other, A campaign that has had a long string of casualties including South Carolina and Bosnian snipers, handicapped itself with the perception that a vote on war was based on political perception and fatally wounded itself yesterday with a cynical appraisal that cataclysmic events inclduing assassination could still benefit her. Her campaign has finally exhausted itself by blowing its exit with its final casualty.