Dear Editor,
In my letter in SN of 10.3.08, captioned ‘Hillary has an ace up her sleeve,’ I cited two inevitable developments vis-à-vis the democratic presidential primary race between Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama, (1) that Mrs Clinton, in a last-ditch effort to secure the nomination, would try to have the delegates of Michigan and Florida seated, and (2), that the ultimate beneficiary from the political brouhaha in the competition and over the seating of delegates, will be the Republican Party and, of course, its presumptive presidential nominee John McCain. Michigan and Florida, which Clinton won in an unchallenged competition, carry a combined total of 368 delegates. Today as we watch on in wonderment, Hillary Clinton, back against a wall with no earthly chance of overtaking the delegate count of her opponent even if Michigan and Florida earn some sort of reprieve, continues to stridently advance the argument that she matches up better against John McCain than her opponent Barrack Obama. An argument I might add, that is constantly and irritatingly being rejected by pundits across the political and ideological spectrum.
According to the latest figures submitted to CNN by 8 general election tracking pollsters, namely RCP Average, Gallup Tracking, Rasmussen Tracking, Newsweek, Reuters/ Zogby, IDB/ TIPP, Democracy Corps (D) and Battleground, Obama’s advantage over McCain in five of them range from spreads of +11 to +2. Of course Fox News which is not among these 8 has McCain leading Obama by +19. But Fox News, IMHO, is the US equivalent of our local state owned media. Mrs Clinton in contrast, according to the same electoral pulse checkers, has leads over McCain in 6 polls, but with spreads ranging from +5 to +1.2 Since I am not an ardent fan of these potential voting measurement exercises, I will advance no opinions based on these figures. Suffice to say that since they are accepted as valid indicators of conventional wisdom in the body politic of the USA, Mrs Clinton seems to be flogging a dead horse in her efforts to persuade the power brokers in the Democratic Party to ignore the gains of Obama in favour of her skewed parsing and interpretation of polling data.
As Democratic leaders struggle with the no-win situation of how to resolve the issue with the two maverick states whose voters they can ill afford to alienate, lawyers are opining that the rules clearly disallow the seating of all of the delegates, something that Hillary is lobbying for strenuously. They do opine however that said rules might accomodate the seating of some, maybe 50% of these delegates. Meanwhile the Obama camp, with the finishing line brightly illuminated in their perceptions and sights, are not averse to Mrs Clinton securing the majority share of the delegates, but certainly not that of both states in its entirety. But even if there is a resolution to this impasse, obstacles abound in other decisions in terms of which fraction of the delegates will be seated, and how the votes should be distributed between the two candidates. Another cross that Hillary has to bear is the fact that since John Edwards has come out in support of Obama, any delegates he accrues from the competition in Michigan and Florida most likely will go to that candidate.
The Democratic Party, even to the most loyal of its supporters, has found itself in a proverbial rock and a hard place scenario. Beyond the issues surrounding the seating of delegates of the two maverick states of Florida and Michigan, the competition between Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton has unearthed feelings and animus among parcels of the Democratic constituency that are not likely to dissipate before November. Significant percentages in the support constituency of each side have declared that were their candidate to lose, they would either cast their votes for the other side, or abstain from participating in the general elections. And who do we think is probably grinning from ear to ear like Lewis Carrol’s Cheshire Cat over these episodic conflagrations tearing at the seams of the Democratic Party? John McCain of course, who, besides seeming to be protected by a covering of teflon, might be going into the ring for the championship fight with an opponent already battered and bruised from a preliminary encounter.
Yours faithfully,
Robin Williams
