Sunday, June 01, 2008

On Pain and McCain

Yesterday we saw the Democratic Rules and Bylaws Committee give Hillary Clinton 19 delegates in Florida, and give Barack Obama 4 delegates in Michigan. Some would argue that they gave Obama 59 delegates in Michigan because Obama wasn’t on the ballot. Others will say that Obama should have gotten 64 delegates in Michigan since their primary, as I found out this morning from DNC Chairman Howard Dean, was nonexistent because it was illegal.

Others have said that Obama was being magnanimous in taking fewer delegates in Michigan and allowing his supporters to give Clinton 19 in Florida. My feeling is that his campaign doesn’t want it to look too much like a total rout for Clinton, that the deal is in the bag and now is not the time to be in a delegate grabbing mode.

The delegates will come anyway. Word is that there is a bloc of superdelegates, or charter delegates as we all now know to call them, who have declared for Clinton, but will switch sides later this week.

This will not be good news to the many women who have pinned their hearts, hopes and treasure to someone that they thought was going to be the first woman to be President of the United States. The piece that I wrote a couple of days ago, about women, Democratic women, who will vote for McCain if Obama is the nominee showed the level of the pain that they feel. Especially now when we see a Catholic priest do an outrageous take-off on Clinton’s tearful moment in New Hampshire.

Yes there will be pain and suffering this week if there is a significant superdelegate shift to Obama. Women will feel cheated. They will be angry, just as the woman in this You Tube video clip was when she left the room after the Rules Committee made their decisions known. I actually remember hearing her outbursts – she has a very thick accent that makes her voice unmistakable. But clearly, this woman was in pain.



If you listened at the very end you heard the laughter of a young woman near the video camera’s microphone. This is the kind of reaction that we don’t need right now. Right now we have women who are making very short-sighted voting decisions that go against their own self-interest.

They say that they will vote for McCain this fall.

I think what we have to do now is let that anger and frustration run its course. This is a unique primary season. It is like no other in American history. It is the first time that both race AND gender are issues. Post-primary feelings are going to be higher than they have been in the past when all we had running against each other were some middle aged white men.

As the nominee emerges, some women will simply shift their allegiance to Obama, crestfallen but certain in the knowledge that the real enemy is not Obama, but McCain. I think others will need more time and may say things that they will want to retract later. What we don’t want to do is deride these women in their pain or it will only make it harder for them to recognize where the real problem is, who is their real adversary, and what is at stake.

The last thing we want is for McCain to reap the benefit of their pain.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Well said Hal. Now is not the time to alienate passionate progressives.

Anonymous said...

As Abraham Lincoln said about how to treat the South after Lee surrendered, "Let 'em up easy." But of course the question is have they gone too far toward the Republican Party ever to come back into the Democratic Party? As one disgruntled Confederate bridled when informed that he had been forgiven by the Federal government, "I have not forgiven YOU yet."

They could get another shock if Hillary isn't chosen for VP, and wash their hands of progressivism in favor of anti-intellectual populism with its knee-jerk solutions to massive problems.

Unknown said...

Again, I apologize for posting this stuff, but after all this is my diary, I post whatever is on my mind even if it is about a sick, demented, racist, hate-mongering, assassination-mentioning, cheating, delusional, low-life scummy politician! Maybe this will purge my brain.

I have to go throw-up now.

Unknown said...

Hellary and her army of drone racist will absolutely insure that McCain is the next president!