It’s a bird, it’s a plane… No, it’s a bird.
February 13th, 2008
There has been quite a lot of concerned talk about the idea of Clinton, as the establishment candidate, convincing enough superdelegates to vote for her to override Obama’s eventual margin of victory among pledged delegates. I’m not too worried. Aside from having quite a bit of establishment support himself, an overwhelming plurality of superdelegates in red or purple states feel Obama would have longer coattails in November. I think people vastly overestimate Clinton’s sway with superdelegates. Her edge there was mostly the result of early endorsements when she seemed to be the presumptive nominee. Recent endorsements tilt in Obama’s favor, and there’s just no way a huge chunk of supers are going to vote against the will of the people, against their own political survival (most of them are elected officials seeking reelection) and against a guy that a good deal of them would rather see in the White House, anyway.
No doubt the Clintons will arm twist and threaten retribution, but those threats don’t carry the same weight when they aren’t coming from the future president. The only threat to Obama now is if he clams up in the general election and loses to the ornery Senator from Arizona. Already, Hillaryland is asking reporters to call these delegates “automatic” delegates instead of superdelegates, because one wouldn’t want to imply that they have super human powers, or more influence than, you know, the fucking voters in each state. That would be patently false. This new strategy has all the logic of their claim that the February contests don’t count because Clinton is not going to win them. It’s like Republicans saying the surge is working because they’ve set the bar so low it’s easier to reach than the “You must be this tall to ride” signs at Disneyland.
There comes a point where putting all this spin on election results and events in general strays too far from any plausible reality and starts to enter Bushian territory.
Entry Filed under: Politics
1 Comment Add your own
1. Mark Stamas | February 13th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Yeah. Totally.
FTP nails it again, and so did Obama. Hillary is Bush/Cheney lite. It’s unbelievable how spin is the bastard stepdaughter of lies and deceit.
Imagine if Hillary was in Obama’s position today. Her crew would be trumpeting destiny, the will of the people, this and that and bacon fat.
Now, well, Obama’s dominance is somehow cast as a “hiccup”. Still, you have to imagine those idiots don’t really believe their own rhetoric. Come on, get real.
Take the “war” in Iraq. First, there is no war, there is only unchecked imperialist aggression for reasons unclear to this day, costing you and me hundreds of billions, billions we could use for the United States of America, and billions that are producing no oil only serving to destabilize the region. Where’s my Iraq rebate check? So now the “surge” is a success because Muqtada al-Sadr put down his arms and helped broker a cease fire. Thank you Muq, but BFD. Tomorrow, he says, fuck you USA and all hell breaks loose. I just hope the cash is getting to the right people for human life’s sake. Like you said, the bar is so low one can’t fail.
Imagine if the “surge” wasn’t “working”. Imagine if the tired and listless insurgents weren’t so tired. What the hell would the spin be? I can’t imagine. And artillery Hillary has been a proponent from the git, will continue to be, and would be a disastrous president with a legacy of polarized hatred and aggression. She continues to trumpet her “tested” polarizing of republicans as a virtue. Vote for me. I’m divisive. Idiot!
The one great thing about this primary season is that we are more aware than ever how fucked up “super” delegates are in the Democratic party system. What the? Which party is this?
Fortunately, Obama won’t need ‘em anyway, but they’ll flock to him like Floccin on grease.
Great post Devin. Dirt can’t stop the peace train. No worries.
A friend of mine recently said about Obama, “He says he can get shit done and wants to give it a shot? Let him go ahead and try, give him his chance.”
And we will. And he will.
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