In her latest and most deplorable attempt yet to provide evidence Barack Obama is unelectable, Hillary Clinton has strode forcefully into the racial divide, a foray that should send chills through the remaining uncommitted superdelegates and harken a quick end to her interminable death march to Denver.
As she hammers away at the idea only she can garner the working class vote, Clinton is intentionally inserting a racial element that could only be to one end: She wants to put white voters off Obama in November.
Clinton, it seems, has determined her final path to the presidency. Not this presidency, mind you — that bus ran out of gas in Indiana. Clinton is now clearly eyeing 2012.
CATALYST FOR CONCLUSION?
Clinton's divisive comments, should she continue that tack, will likely heighten the anxiety amongst undeclared SDs and force them to move en masse for Obama. As much as they must want to allow her to choose her own exit strategy, Democrats cannot stand idly by and allow her to diminish the presumptive nominee ahead of an election they absolutely must win.
John Edwards, per his Friday morning talk show circuit, clearly believes Obama is the party's nominee. Since he has remained neutral since suspending his own campaign, Edwards' comments were likely a shot across Clinton's bow, a blatant signal for her to cut with the negative tone.
If Clinton ignores pleas for decent comportment, party elders and heavyweights could approach her soon, this weekend or early next week, and lay out their criterion for allowing her to finish the race versus forcing her out now. If she denies their overtures and appeals to reason, the dam could break Tuesday or Wednesday.
There will be no olive branch in the form of the vice presidency, though. It is canon within the Obama movement the need to shift to a new representation of the American people, one to bridge divides, not exacerbate them. Clinton's adherence to mud-slinging and pandering, hallmarks of the old-world politics that have emboldened Obama's call for change, make it impossible for him to choose her.
ONLY WHITES WORK HARD, APPARENTLY
Why, when Clinton and mainstream media slice demographics, are there working-class whites, but all blacks are lumped together? Are blacks not also hard-working Americans?
In contrast to Clinton's belief only she can amass the support from white America to win in November, an honest assessment of each candidates' general election viability along demographic lines would more likely conclude that Obama will do fine with whites, while Clinton has a serious problem with blacks.
Determining general election results based on party primary votes is a dubious venture. Going into this process, Democrats were forced to choose between two attractive candidates; the incredibly close popular vote and delegate tallies bear this out.
As the rhetoric built, though, especially through Bill Clinton's comments post-South Carolina, there was a palpable sense the Clintons were belittling black voters, despite still getting a decent share of black votes.
Obama's S.C. win, and Bill's subsequent, dismissive insinuation that Obama was just another black candidate enjoying inconsequential minority support, were watershed moments: The black vote went from 3-to-1 for Obama early in the process to 9-to-1 in Indiana and North Carolina.
While it is true Clinton currently enjoys stronger support from older women and whites than Obama, it borders absurd to suggest those voters will not chose the Democrat candidate over John McCain in November. Clinton's supposed grasp on those demographics is not by the startling ratio in which blacks now turn out for Obama.
And, while the 'bitter' comment and Rev. Wright obviously give some pause, Obama has not spurned white voters with racially-charged comments. He has never suggested Clinton could not get black votes against McCain, though observers could certainly reach that conclusion at this point.
WHO WILL YOU BELIEVE, ME OR YOUR LYING EYES?!
At first it seems hard for Howard Wolfson, Clinton's campaign manager, now a punchless brawler swaying on wobbly knees. What is his argument? To what depths must he reach to muster incredulity when MSNBC's Chris Matthews asks if he truly believes Clinton's claim to the presidency now hinges on seating Michigan as is and the popular vote of Puerto Rico.
Obama's name, as we all know, was not even on the Michigan ballot. And Puerto Rican's cannot vote in the general election.
Rumors that Wolfson has been working on a book deal the last few days certainly don't stem the feeling the race is over.
POLITICS AND SPORTS: A TASTELESS ANALOGY
It is fitting, though perhaps inappropriate to acknowledge, that Clinton's last jog around the track might come in Kentucky, where her choice and the only filly in the Derby field, Eight Belles, was euthanized on the track after finishing second to Big Brown.
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