Sometimes, the best entertainment is completely free.
For the last several months, I've been able to sit back and watch as the Democrat party has just imploded upon itself. Yesterday, it culminated in a deal which pretty much guarantees Barack H. Obama's status as the presumptive nominee of the Dems.
As a result, the Hillary supporters are on fire. In fact, if the video below is any indication, they may be ready to detonate what I like to call a "political suitcase nuke" and ensure the election of John McCain to the Presidency of the United States of America.
(If you are unable to see the embedded tirade above, please click here.)
Why is Harriet Christian fired up? Yesterday, the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee met to consider the matter of seating the delegates to Florida and Michigan to the national party convention this summer in Denver. Earlier this year, the DNC had decided that delegates in those states would not be seated because they broke the rules in scheduling their primary contests. This has been a source of contention for the Clinton campaign because Hillary won both states handily. (Barack H. Obama wasn't on the ballot in Michigan.)
So, in a compromise, the Rules & Bylaws Committee decided to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates to the convention---but their votes would only counted as half a vote instead of counting as a full vote.
In all practicality, it hands Obama the nomination.
DNC officials are chanting the mantra that the party can now start to unify and heal, but many of the rank and file are not interested in a big group hug.
From Breitbart.com:
"There's been a lot of talk about party unity--let's all come together, and put our arms around each other," said Ickes, who is also a member of the Rules Committee that approved the deal. "I submit to you ladies and gentlemen, hijacking four delegates...is not a good way to start down the path of party unity."
...
"How can you call yourselves Democrats if you don't count the vote?" one man in the audience shouted before being escorted out by security. "This is not the Democratic Party!"
...
"Lipstick on a pig!" one shouted.
"We just blew the election!" a woman in the audience shouted. The crowd was divided between cheering Obama supporters and booing Clinton supporters.
"This isn't unity! Count all the votes!" another audience member yelled.
How can this be? The Democrats are the party of inclusion--the party that counts every vote and makes every vote count... Since 2000, all anyone has heard is how the RIGHT steals elections or how the RIGHT discriminates or how the RIGHT is in turmoil.
Well, all I can say to that is, "Someone get me some popcorn because this has the potential to be a political civil war."
I'm not naive. I know that a significant number of Democrats are going to unite behind Barack H. Obama as the party nominee. Just as a large number of disenfranchised conservatives will line up to vote for John McCain so, too, will Democrats vote for Obama. That's just the way it is.
The question now becomes this: will there be a significant enough number of what I now like to call "Splinter Cell Democrats" willing to rend their own party asunder just to spite the DNC and the Obama campaign?
I think that answer is a resounding "yes."
If there is any lesson to be taken away from the last couple of elections, it's that electoral votes matter. In 2000, Bush won by a margin of 5 electoral votes. Five. That's it. Can the Splinter Cell Dems do enough damage to give McCain a win? You bet they can. We most likely won't have to wait until November to see them in action, however.
Big surprise here: more than anything in the world, Hillary Clinton wants to be President and, if she can't be in 2008, she wants Barack H. Obama to fail miserably so the can then run in 2012. She may not have succeeded this time around, but she'll do as much damage to him as she can on the way out of the spotlight.
What does that mean? It means a ground war all the way to the convention in Denver this August. She can appeal any decision made by the committee there--and you can bet that as long as she stays in this race and doesn't take a negotiated exit, that will most certainly be her plan.
There are those planning to protest the Democrat National Convention in such a way that it rivals the 1968 convention in Chicago: unrest, riot police, fire hoses, etc. They may have some competition inside the Pepsi Center because the delegate floor has the makings of being a WWE-style steel-cage grudge match for the title.
"The whole world is watching," indeed.
In the meantime, John McCain gets to sit back and wait...and watch. The Democrats are doing an effective job of neutering themselves and he doesn't have to spend the money or the time doing it himself. In fact, he may be the largest benefactor of the Clinton strategy, because it just might help him win the Presidency.
William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com
