THE PARTY IS OVER

The theme of the latest Obama rally was party unity. What he said was that he is sure that in the end Hillary Clinton will support whatever the Democrats decide.

Well…Barack Obama is far more diplomatic then I am. When Florida and Michigan opted to hold their primaries before the Iowa Caucus they, and more importantly the Democratic Candidates for President, were well aware of the fact that their delegates would not be counted in deciding the final outcome of the primary election. And so, in the interest of supporting the parties’ decision Obama had his name taken off the ballots in these states. Again, there was no reason not to do this. In fact, it would have made sense if all of the candidates had done this.

So, Hillary beats Obama in Florida and Michigan. Again, his name wasn’t on the ballot so her beating him means about as much as the fact that she beat you and I in those states. (That is assuming your name, like mine and Senator Obama’s, was not on the ballot.)

And so the race goes on. But then Hillary starts to fall behind in the overall delegate count. So, all of sudden it is imperative that the delegates from Florida and Michigan be counted. And as of this past weekend she has gotten her wish. The problem is Obama is getting many of those delegates. He is, in the words of Hillary’s campaign manager, “stealing them”.

And so as the Associated Press reported last Friday, Hillary has reserved the right to appeal the decision about the number of delegates assigned to each candidate at the convention.

Now, let’s talk about party unity! After tomorrow’s primaries Obama may well have the delegates needed to carry the nomination and yet it will still come down to the convention.

But wait, you say, isn’t it only fair that since Hillary has won the popular vote (which she claims to have done) that she get a chance at the nomination? The answer is a resounding NO! The first problem is that she may not have won the popular vote. We don’t know the exact number of people who voted for her versus who voted for Senator Obama in some of the caucuses. And, even if she did carry more of the popular vote nationally that is because she was running in two states in which (for fear of sounding repetitive) his name was not on the ballot. But these are secondary points. The real problem with her claim is that she knew going into the primary that the winner is the person who carries the most delegates and that, assuming he is not totally blown out of the water tomorrow, is Barack Obama.

She has already fought against the parties’ decision not to count two states now she is fighting against the way the winner is decided. She seems to feel she should be elected based on divine right not based on party rules which were established long before this election cycle.

She is so intent on winning the nomination at any cost that she is completely oblivious to the fact that she is tearing apart the party. Indeed, John McCain, despite an economic policy which threatens to bury the country and a war policy which guarantees the unnecessary death of thousands more, can just sit back and watch the Democrats destroy themselves.