Email to a Friend
Stumble It!
WASHINGTON – Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama vow to take their fight for the presidential nomination all the way to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Let’s see: The convention is Aug. 25 through 28. We could have nearly six months of a Democratic civil war -- brother against sister, there stands Hillary like a stone wall, house divided, all that -- followed by a superdelegate showdown in the Rockies.
That’s a scenario a journalist or a political junkie could love.
At the Gridiron Club’s spring dinner Saturday, singers portraying Bill and Hillary Clinton sang a duet to Johnny Cash’s “Jackson” with this verse: “We got Rocky Mountain fever/Denver deadlock here we come...”
The Gridiron Club’s 65 active members are Washington journalists who put on an annual musical show lampooning politicians. The club’s songwriters had three alternative verses for the Clintons’ song, depending on how she fared in Tuesday’s primaries in Ohio and Texas.
As it was, the Gridiron chorus belted out, “Brokered convention/Oh what a happy sound!” to a high-octane audience of 600 that included the president and first lady, the chief justice of the United States, members of the Cabinet and Congress and corporate bigwigs.
The words “brokered convention” are anything but a happy sound to Democratic leaders. They face the real prospect of voter fatigue as well as of alienating the loser’s ardent supporters, whoever the loser is, with little time to heal the party.
If the Democrats’ nominee isn’t known until the end of August, Republican John McCain will have had ages to solidify the Republican base. He’ll beat up on the Democrats while they slam each other. A victorious but battered Clinton or Obama would have only a few short weeks to unify the party. Would independents even be listening then? The general election is Nov. 4.
Nothing about this primary season has gone as expected, so it’s not surprising that Democratic leaders are eager to end the suspense. Democratic chairman Howard Dean and others are desperately seeking a way to do over the primaries in Florida and Michigan so that those states’ delegates count and a brokered convention can be avoided. The term “brokered convention” means that no candidate has the requisite number of delegates to capture the nomination on the first ballot, but it conjures up visions of shady back room deals.
Florida and Michigan jumped ahead and held their primaries earlier than Democratic rules prescribed. As a penalty, they lost their seats at the convention. Clinton won both contests, but Obama’s name wasn’t on the Michigan ballot and neither state saw active campaigning.
A stern letter from Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm last week said, “It is reprehensible that anyone would seek to silence the voices of 5,163,271 Americans” who voted in the two primaries. What a hoot. After breaking the party’s rules, the states want the national party to pay for the redo. Howard Dean says no, no, no -- for now. What fun the Republicans could have with this.
How the Democrats resolve the issue will be telling. Fairness matters far more than party discipline. Democrats, after their record-breaking primary turnouts, hardly want Puerto Rico or the superdelegates to decide their nominee. They’d be better off as the party of the second guess than of the disenfranchised.
The ever-talking James Carville said whoever wins the Democratic nomination should consider naming the other as running mate. But it’s hard to imagine that Barack Obama would fall for naming two vice presidents. Remember, the Clintons come as a team.
And, it’s equally hard to imagine Obama playing second fiddle to Bill Clinton, the de facto vice president in a Hillary Clinton White House.
To be sure, Democrats have weathered brokered conventions in the distant past -- in 1952, 1932, 1912. But those were the days before blogging and streaming video. Maybe it was easier in 1912, when Woodrow Wilson went through 46 ballots before he won the Democratic nomination.
But I’ll bet the Gridiron Club had a song about it.
______
What do you think? Comment below.
Let’s see: The convention is Aug. 25 through 28. We could have nearly six months of a Democratic civil war -- brother against sister, there stands Hillary like a stone wall, house divided, all that -- followed by a superdelegate showdown in the Rockies.
That’s a scenario a journalist or a political junkie could love.
At the Gridiron Club’s spring dinner Saturday, singers portraying Bill and Hillary Clinton sang a duet to Johnny Cash’s “Jackson” with this verse: “We got Rocky Mountain fever/Denver deadlock here we come...”
The Gridiron Club’s 65 active members are Washington journalists who put on an annual musical show lampooning politicians. The club’s songwriters had three alternative verses for the Clintons’ song, depending on how she fared in Tuesday’s primaries in Ohio and Texas.
As it was, the Gridiron chorus belted out, “Brokered convention/Oh what a happy sound!” to a high-octane audience of 600 that included the president and first lady, the chief justice of the United States, members of the Cabinet and Congress and corporate bigwigs.
The words “brokered convention” are anything but a happy sound to Democratic leaders. They face the real prospect of voter fatigue as well as of alienating the loser’s ardent supporters, whoever the loser is, with little time to heal the party.
If the Democrats’ nominee isn’t known until the end of August, Republican John McCain will have had ages to solidify the Republican base. He’ll beat up on the Democrats while they slam each other. A victorious but battered Clinton or Obama would have only a few short weeks to unify the party. Would independents even be listening then? The general election is Nov. 4.
Nothing about this primary season has gone as expected, so it’s not surprising that Democratic leaders are eager to end the suspense. Democratic chairman Howard Dean and others are desperately seeking a way to do over the primaries in Florida and Michigan so that those states’ delegates count and a brokered convention can be avoided. The term “brokered convention” means that no candidate has the requisite number of delegates to capture the nomination on the first ballot, but it conjures up visions of shady back room deals.
Florida and Michigan jumped ahead and held their primaries earlier than Democratic rules prescribed. As a penalty, they lost their seats at the convention. Clinton won both contests, but Obama’s name wasn’t on the Michigan ballot and neither state saw active campaigning.
A stern letter from Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm last week said, “It is reprehensible that anyone would seek to silence the voices of 5,163,271 Americans” who voted in the two primaries. What a hoot. After breaking the party’s rules, the states want the national party to pay for the redo. Howard Dean says no, no, no -- for now. What fun the Republicans could have with this.
How the Democrats resolve the issue will be telling. Fairness matters far more than party discipline. Democrats, after their record-breaking primary turnouts, hardly want Puerto Rico or the superdelegates to decide their nominee. They’d be better off as the party of the second guess than of the disenfranchised.
The ever-talking James Carville said whoever wins the Democratic nomination should consider naming the other as running mate. But it’s hard to imagine that Barack Obama would fall for naming two vice presidents. Remember, the Clintons come as a team.
And, it’s equally hard to imagine Obama playing second fiddle to Bill Clinton, the de facto vice president in a Hillary Clinton White House.
To be sure, Democrats have weathered brokered conventions in the distant past -- in 1952, 1932, 1912. But those were the days before blogging and streaming video. Maybe it was easier in 1912, when Woodrow Wilson went through 46 ballots before he won the Democratic nomination.
But I’ll bet the Gridiron Club had a song about it.
______
What do you think? Comment below.