Barack Obama can probably convince his true believers that all the insane hate-speech directed at Hillary Clinton in the last six months can be washed away by offering her a second-tier cabinet position, but for millions of Hillary's supporters who have been vilified as racists and insulted with every other conceivable term of abuse, it may not be quite so easy to forgive and forget.
Obama's friends on the blogs and in the mainstream media are trying to bully Hillary Clinton's supporters into voting for Obama by threatening them with the bogey-man McCain, and the implication is perfectly clear:
"We can demonize Hillary Clinton and all of you who supported her for six months, but you have no choice except to vote for Obama anyway, because otherwise the bogey-man McCain will eat you up!"
This isn't just made-for-TV rhetoric for the youth vote, it's toddler-logic for imbeciles!
If Obama plans to carry over the vindictiveness of the primaries into the general election by tossing Hillary Clinton a scrap and trying to pass it off as magnanimity, he may turn what should be a Democratic landslide into a toss-up, and leave voters in the general election with a very unappealing choice between a bogey-man and a vindictive hypocrite.
Barack Obama can unify the Democratic Party in one second by selecting Hillary Clinton for Vice-President, and simultaneously refute all of us who doubt that there's any substance behind his made-for-TV persona, or he can carry the animosities of the primary campaign forward into the general election and try to bullshit his way into the White House with meaningless slogans and empty gestures.
But he shouldn't take Hillary Clinton's supporters for granted. Barack Obama and his friends have been trying to bully and blackmail us into supporting him for the last six months, and he still lost four out of the last five primaries.
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Hmmm... this post started
Hmmm... this post started out as "a plea for unity" and then spiralled down into "he's a made for TV personality and maybe a vindictive hypocrite."
You've got to work on your "plea for unity" presentation, Jacob. I think putting Hillary on the ticket is a fine idea, a top-notch idea. But there are postive reasons to do so, above and beyond "HRC supporters will take revenge if you don't." Positive reasons, like: she's a proven vote-getter from a winner administration, she'll attract the support of women voters. Who else beside HRC could add millions of votes to Obama's total, this year?
I was there, on the Kos, I saw the "lynch Clinton" Obama mob insulting a Dem hero, trashing her supporters, making false accusations--all of that seemingly sanctioned by the front page editors. I know what you're going through. But trash-talking and threatening Obama will not work to get HRC on the ticket: that strategy only works for the Obamists, this year.
If he gets in deep, deep "scandal" or "race" trouble in the polls, versus McCain--Hillary will be a viable choice for veep; it will exhilarate the Dems to see that, if McCain starts to creep past BO. But if Obama continues to lead McCain in the polls and begins to advance on him in the key electoral college contests--we can forget at about Hillary as veep, the end.
__________________________Bill Prendergast is also a contributor to Dump Michele Bachmann.
Hey Bill... It's an
Hey Bill...
It's an unexpected pleasure to see a substantial comment on my diary from someone who has written hundreds of intelligent posts all over the internet.
We're looking at a general election that's like two masked men walking into a bank. Who knows what's under those masks?
But it's a sure bet that neither one of them plans to make a deposit.
What I would really like to see is a deadlocked Democratic convention that picks Chris Dodd and Wesley Clark as a "compromise" ticket, which is really a misnomer for describing two of the least compromised public figures in the United States.
I'm a Democrat because all the decent people I ever knew had a tendency to side with the underdog in the dog-fight of human existence. That tendency somehow transferred itself onto a multi-millionaire Senator when she was being brutalized by the media and most of the political establishment, but my admiratiion for the Clintons came to a crashing halt about 15 years ago when Bill signed off on Welfare Reform, and when Hillary and Barack both voted for NASFTA-Peru while 8,000,000 Peruvian farmers and workers were out on a general strike against it, I finally gave up on the Democrats. I can tell you from personal observation that Peru is a godawful place to farm or work in a mine, and now the Democrats want to take away the infinitesimally little that those farmers and workers have!
So you're right on all counts: My "plea for party unity" isn't really committed, and Obama may be able to outpoll the preposterous dinosaur McCain all the way to November without Hillary on the ticket.
But it's also worth considering how poorly the polls have performed this season, and Obama's numbers may be inflated with a lot of voters who would vote for Obama instead of McCain if they voted.
I'm guessing that a significant number of them won't show up to vote, and Obama seems to be guessing that they will, and...
So far he has out-guessed us all.
__________________________http://jacobfreeze.com
Cheer up, Hillary fans,
Cheer up, Hillary fans, she’s not really out of the campaign just yet. By “suspending” her campaign instead of conceding she left the back door open to be nominated at the convention. And I’m sure that her husband Bill is calling all the unpledged delegates to nominate her in Denver. And by doing that Hillary needs to realize that she has successfully ticked off a lot of Obama supporters. However, it appears she’s willing to take that gamble for another shot at the nomination. After all, “circumstances may change”. Obama will be going back to California, right?
Step into the light, Obama, and loose those Clinton shadows.
Little Obamabots with their
Little Obamabots with their unending innuendos about the RFK assassination are making Obama some enemies who know how to fight back on the shifting ground of internet images and rumors.
The problem with hypocrites like Obama is that they have to make it all up as they go along, and every time they relax for second, the mask can slip.
We may even eventually get to know the "real" Obama, if such a thing exists.
__________________________http://jacobfreeze.com
Oh my, The fear tactic. It
Oh my,
The fear tactic. It surely does sound familiar from somewhere.
But speaking of fear, there is great concern about McCains age and experience. I hear the new polically correct term for the gentleman is "elderly".