Party Struggle
It’s a party apparently having a hard time figuring out what it is about, which is how the sideshow ended up being the main event. That would be the battle of gender vs. race. More of the usual “Clinton out now!” this morning. We’ll get to that in a minute. First, NYT sums up why, politically, it makes sense for her to stay and touches on that sexism thing everyone has been overlooking in their rush to condemn pervasive American racism or anti-Obamism or whatever it is.Â
Rebuffing associates who have suggested that she end her candidacy, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has made it clear to her camp in recent days that she will stay in the race until June because she believes she can still be the nominee — and, barring that, so she can depart with some final goals accomplished.
Mrs. Clinton has disagreed with suggestions, made directly to her by a few friends recently, that her continued candidacy was deepening splits within the Democratic Party and damaging Senator Barack Obama’s chances of emerging as a formidable nominee. She has also disputed the notion that, by staying in, she was unintentionally fostering a racial divide with white voters in some states overwhelmingly supporting her.
Rather, in private conversations and in interviews, Mrs. Clinton has begun asserting that she believes sexism, rather than racism, has cast a shadow over the primary fight, a point some of her supporters have made for months. Advisers say that continuing her candidacy is partly a means to show her supporters — especially young women — that she is not a quitter and will not be pushed around.
Campaigning in New Hampshire and Indiana this year, Mrs. Clinton endured taunts from passers-by who questioned her abilities because she is a woman and mocked her husband’s affair with a White House intern. Yet Mrs. Clinton has also benefited from the strong support of white voters in many states, including some who have said that race was a factor in their support.
…
Mrs. Clinton is also focused on some tangible goals by staying in the race: she believes that racking up more victories, delegates and votes will give her and her supporters more leverage this month at a Democratic National Convention rules meeting to advocate for seating the delegates from the unofficial primaries in Florida and Michigan.
…Â
Mrs. Clinton’s advisers also say that her popularity could lead Mr. Obama to fold some of her policy positions — like universal health insurance — into his platform, though they discounted the notion that her staying in the race was part of a larger bargaining strategy.
While Mrs. Clinton believes that winning the nomination is a long shot at this point, she is also staying in the race because, in her experience, electoral politics can be a chaotic and unpredictable enterprise, scandals can emerge from nowhere, and Mr. Obama’s candidacy could still suffer a self-inflicted or unexpected wound. Picking up more primary votes and superdelegates could only strengthen her position if the party wants or needs to find an alternative to Mr. Obama.
It’s an eye-gouging thing. But the irony is, it is not Clinton’s actions but Obama’s own that create the opportunity. At the rate Obama keeps nicking himself, having to explain away absurd and offensive utterances and associations, there is no reason to think he might not yet critically gaffe himself, spill enough blood into the water that superdelegates start scrambling away in a panic. NYT fails to make the very legitimate point that the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen made yesterday … The Clintons know Americans ultimately will have more respect for a tenacious, diehard loser than a quitter.
About the sexism, I suspect we’ll finally see a serious mainstream examination of that once Obama’s clinched it and the buyer’s regret sets in.
Politico’s Roger Simon misses all of the above points in a vapid Obama fawn entitled “What is Clinton’s Argument Now?” that ends bizarrely with the inconclusive conclusion that “The Democrats will battle on because it is just so gosh-darned exciting!” Actually, the Democrats will battle on because they have mistaken the politics of personal ambition and vanity clothed in race and gender issues for matters of substance and have turned it into a race to see which will trump the other. Which is bizarre not least because race and gender concerns in 2008 are far from the most pressing issues of the day. There’s a heck of a soul-searching due, and a lot of people will be (are being) smeared before its done.
Obama may be all but claiming he’s clinched, but Nicholas Wapshott at The NY Sun casts a jaundiced eye at that.
This one’s interesting. Jonathan Chait at LA Times, “Not Supporting Clinton isn’t an Attack on Feminism.” How about “Not Supporting Obama Doesn’t Mean You’re a Racist.”
Dickerson at Slate, “Lady, You’re in My Way. Can Obama Do Anything to Get Clinton Out of the Race?” has this great line:
How long can a body exist in a state approximating motionlessness without actually stopping?
But otherwise is astonishingly uninformative and fails to engage on its own line of questioning with the natural followup. What is the effect of the gross impotence Obama is experiencing/demonstrating? Is America going to want to be entirely ruled by a party with such a marked record of indecision and ineffectiveness, and a candidate who can’t close the deal? What happens in the spring is usually forgotten by fall, but if the Democrats have not exactly chosen a candidate yet, it may be because they can’t decide whether they fear one more than they want to spare the feelings of the other. Well, that’s their problem. I’m with Politico: It’s gosh-darned exciting!
With thanks to RCP, where you’ll find more.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:46 am on Wednesday, May 21, 2008
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May 21st, 2008 at 11:25 am
Web Reconnaissance for 05/21/2009
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
May 21st, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Do you suppose that Hillary is using Voodoo against her opponents. Did she stick pins in the head of a Teddy Kennedy doll? Has she made an Obama doll?