There's A Stench In The Air

There’s a stench in the air that’s been very hard to describe. It’s coming from the outside. But much to my surprise the smell is inside the house as well .The house of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. This week was the culmination of the 2012, oops, 2008 Pennsylvania Democratic Presidential primary.

As you may now know, Hillary Clinton “won” the opportunity to run two more weeks in the North Carolina and Indiana primaries. With her campaign in disarray, disorganization and almost bankrupt, the Clinton Campaign threw the “toilet” not the sink, at Senator Barack Obama’s quest to gain the Democratic Nomination for President.

The past six weeks have produced some of most amazing as well as ridiculous Issues for a Presidential campaign that anyone has ever seen. There has been The Wright Controversy, the Speech on Race, Bitter Small Towners, Elitist Obama, Sniper Lying, The Ayers Association and The Flag-Pin Ambush at the ABC Debate. And Bill is still talking race by saying, “I didn’t say that.“

And after all is said and done, very little has changed on the path to the nomination. Obama still leads in pledged delegates, the number of states won and popular vote. Also it is noteworthy to mention that Obama still leads in the polls nationally by 10 points over Senator Clinton. But now, there are many people in political circles that are asking the question,”What’s wrong with Obama? Why can’t he close the deal?” I’ll answer these questions a little later.

What is very clear is that Clinton cannot catch Obama before the end of the primary season. She has stated emphatically, that she will not bow out? So if you will not be ahead before the primary season is over, what’s the point? This is where the smell comes in and won’t go away. And it’s coming from many different directions.

The racially tainted politics of the Clinton Campaign has never been reigned in by the DNC. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell stated that, “there are many in my state who will not be able to move themselves to vote for a black candidate for President.” In this age of renouncing and denouncing, Clinton and the DNC said or did nothing.

The Jeremiah Wright controversy which was put into play by the Clinton has morphed into a story unto itself. Wright incidentally is not running for President. Obama is. And Bill Clinton on the eve of the primary brought back the divisiveness of the South Carolina Primary by commenting on an NPR radio show, “They (the Obama campaign) played the race card on me.”

Clinton also played the voters to be stupid when she lied on Bosnia. That was the one thing that was borne to be true at the ambush at the ABC debate. Have you ever been shot at? I haven’t . I’m sure I would remember if I had been. But no one has held her accountable for her lying “misspeak.” As Mary Mitchell of The Chicago Sun-Times clearly said about Clinton, that she took the low road in “winning ugly” in Pennsylvania.

There are only a handful of states that are left with primaries. Why then are the super delegates so slow to back either Clinton or Obama in the states that have already voted? The logic here is that if the Democrats do not want to have the primary season to expedite itself and summarily would want to be with the will of the people, then why should some of them not cast their vote for the prevailing candidate where clear pluralities have been won?

There may be only a few cases where that may not be the option. In Massachusetts, Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy have endorsed Obama but did not deliver their state for him. When I hear that super delegates are waiting for this to play itself out, I hear, “We never expected to have this situation on our hands.” In other words, no one expected to severely wound the Clinton Dynasty which says to me that the Democratic Party had no idea what the pulse of the party was. They also had no idea that a Barack Obama or anyone else for that matter was lurking in the dark to derail their coronation. They thought he was a neophyte. A non-threat. But what is very disturbing to me is the complicit nature of the Democratic Party to watch and allow Clinton to continue to attempt to mortally damage Obama.

Why has there not been anyone from the Democratic Party who can get her campaign to focus on issues and not issuing attacks? Does some party insiders feel that they owe the Clinton’s something? Has party super-delegates cut a deal for her nomination? I certainly hope that they have not. But their silence by the uncommitted super-delegates points to something else possibly. She was the presumptive front runner and nominee. Obama derailed not only Clinton’s plans, but the party’s plan for a summer campaign blitz with the focus of a contrast of the Bush years to the Clinton years. I was supposed to be an easy campaign. But that didn’t happen. Now everything is on hold and super-delegates are frightened at what they will face at the convention. If Clinton is able to “con”vince super-delegates to hand her the nomination, do they feel that African Americans will be quick to forgive after Obama's campaign of playing by the rules and he being the victim of a “Republican Karl Rove” type campaign complete with racially tinged rhetoric designed to marginalize him and make him vulnerable?

Clinton has pandered to “white, blue collar uneducated” voters. They have merged with her more solid base of white women. Exit polls presented some startling facts about Pennsylvania voters. 18% of voters stated that race was the biggest factor in their choice in the primary. Interestingly though 75% of them broke for Clinton. To me that’s not what the real story is. The real story is that 18% of the Pennsylvania electorate felt so comfortable in admitting this. I wonder how many more felt the same way. Hence it was a complete uphill battle for Obama who closed Clinton’s gap considerably. It was a formidable finish in spite of all that had happened; he still finished within 10 points of Clinton.

What stinks to me is that African-Americans have been the loyal base of the party for almost 50 years. Her deceitful race based campaign has placed African-Americans as fodder only to be expected to fall in line and support her if she wrests the nomination from him. And, the Republicans have happily joined in. Blame Clinton for this. She and her “toilet bowl” strategy will be used against Obama in the fall. Why would she employ such a negative campaign that would damage Obama in the fall? There has never been a Democratic nominee who lost in the general election who came back to make a successful run for the White House. Also it seems that Clinton will not accept defeat from someone who was not supposed to end the Clinton Legacy. Clinton hopes Obama loses in general election. She then believes she has positioned herself for a completely unimpeded run in 2012. It is her way of believing she can still be the next Democratic President.

Now, is there anything wrong with Obama? No…. Will he close the deal? Yes….

Here’s why according to Obama’s National Campaign Co-Chairman Congressman Jesse L. Jackson Jr.

“Hillary Clinton did the expected — she won the Pennsylvania primary. For her, the contest was a “home game” in which she was the overwhelming favorite. In tennis parlance, she “held serve.”

Weeks ago, Senator Clinton had been up in the polls by a whopping 25 points. By last night, Senator Barack Obama had cut that lead by more than half and denied Clinton her last, best chance to make significant inroads in Obama’s pledged delegate lead of 171 delegates. Senator Clinton barely made a dent, winning a net-gain of only about 10 pledged delegates.

No doubt, you’ll be hearing a lot from the Clinton campaign about “big states” and their bearing on the general election. Despite the Clinton camp’s hype and hoopla, Senator Barack Obama still has won more contests, more popular votes, more states and more key battlegrounds — like Missouri, Colorado, Minnesota, Virginia, Wisconsin and Iowa — than Clinton. Most importantly, he’s won more pledged delegates.”

Jackson also added, “Let’s be clear-eyed and fair-minded and dispose of the tortured, dare I say, Clintonian, logic. This primary is a race for delegates, and Barack Obama has acquired a nearly insurmountable lead. Between now and the last primary on June 3rd, I believe more and more super-delegates will do what’s right and move to ratify — not nullify — the will and votes of the people."

I believe this will end after Indiana and North Carolina. But if for some strange reason it does not, and the race goes to the convention floor in July, the Democratic Party will fracture and lose its opportunity to have the White House. And that would be a total waste. The Clinton's will have only themselves to blame.

I have always understood that’s OK to have an argument or disagreement within the family. But sucker punching a family member is out of bounds. Do the Clinton's believe that? I wonder….

Pass It On…..
Copyright © 2008 Algernon H. Penn