Democratic Nominee: It Ain’t Over Yet!
A friend sent me a link this morning to an article in the Telegraph, the prominent British newspaper. The article referred to speculations that the Democrats are thinking about nominating Al Gore as their Presidential candidate, if a nominee hasn’t been definitely selected prior to the Democratic National Convention.
I know that pressure has been mounting for Hillary Clinton to abandon her campaign. Meet the Press and Face the Nation were all discussing the pros and cons. But, of course, she is adamant that she will continue to the convention. And to be honest, why shouldn’t she?
The animosity between the Clinton followers and those of Barack Obama has already occurred. Whether you are a Clinton fan or not, you have to admit Hillary has a good chance of winning Pennsylvania, Indiana and Puerto Rico, so why would she abandon her campaign? And there is still no agreement on the Florida and Michigan primary delegates. She doesn’t have a spoiler to take her votes away, as occurred on the GOP side, so with proportional delegate allotments, it doesn’t look like either Obama or Clinton can secure enough delegates to win before the convention in August.
One of the proponents for Hillary continuing her campaign mentioned that the sniping back and forth is strengthening Obama as a candidate. He pointed to Obama’s continuing rise in the polls, in spite of his close association with Jeremiah Wright. The fact that Obama weathered this particular attack now is much better for him than if the association had been announced just before November elections. By the time the convention rolls around, Jeremiah Wright’s hate speeches and his new multi-million dollar home will be old news.
Since it doesn’t seem there is any way that either Obama or Clinton can secure the required number of pledged delegates before what appears will be a brokered convention, senior Democrats have behind-the-scenes plans for Al Gore to possibly take the Democratic presidential nomination as the “saviour of a bitterly divided party”.
Senior party figures and aides to the former vice-president appear to believe that if “neither Obama nor Clinton has the 2,025 delegates needed to win the nomination, and if both appear unable to beat Mr (John) McCain, under one scenario a group of about 100 party elders - the “super-delegates” - could sit out the first ballot in Denver, preventing either candidate winning outright, and then offer Mr Gore the nomination for the good of the party“. (emphasis by me)
If Gore comes away from the convention with the nomination, it will be a learning experience for all us old-time voters and all the new voters for whom this will be their first campaign. I could be wrong, but it appears that the Democratic Party wants anyone but Hillary Clinton! All this behind-the-scenes finagling may very well be in the works OR it just may be another maneuver to encourage Clinton to step aside and give the nomination to Obama. We shall see!
Tags: Al Gore, Barack Obama, brokered convention, delegates, Democratic National Convention, Democrats, Florida primary, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Michigan Primary, North Carolina primary, Pennsylvania primary, Politics, Presidential primary, Telegraph.co.ukLeave a Reply
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