It is increasingly likely that the battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton over the Democratic presidential nomination will result in a McCain victory in November. As Noam Scheiber puts in TNR:
Democrats contemplate the apocalypse these days, they have visions of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton slugging it out à la Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter at the 1980 convention … The problem is that each day Clinton and Obama spend consumed with the other is a day that moves John McCain closer to the White House.
To make matters worse for the Dems, it is unlikely that the Clinton camp will relent, regardless of how much damage they do to the party. That’s a scenario that Noel Sheppard thinks could result in a permanent rift:
If Obama has the most popular votes and elected delegates heading to Denver, but the Clintons wangle a deal that gets her the nomination, Obama and his supporters furiously branch off to form another Party.
Far fetched? Perhaps, but don’t forget that the modern Democratic Party came into existence (in 1824) as a direct result of a similarly corrupt bargain among political insiders that robbed Andrew Jackson of the presidency.
All of which is good for health care. A civil war among Democrats that causes them to lose in November would prevent Clinton or Obama from enacting their wrong-headed ”reform” proposals.
So, here’s to a long and bloody battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Post a Comment