Finally- It ends tonight.
A battle that has seemingly taken longer than the 100 Years War, will end with a whimper this evening.
When the smoke clears from the Kentucky and Oregon primaries, Barack Obama will emerge with a guarantee that he will hold the majority of pledged delegates at the Democratic Party Convention. That is the ultimate clincher.
Obama will be gracious… and cautious. He will not claim victory- it won’t be “official” until the Superdelegates gets off of their asses and commit- but he will note that the people have spoken. And they have. But, tonight, when he addresses the crowd in Iowa, Obama will be taking his victory lap.
Hillary Clinton, like the proverbial scorpion, will protest. Unable to shed her nature (and her ego) will not be listening. You will hear from her tonight how her overwhelming victory in Kentucky makes her the most electable candidate and you will hear from her that the disenfranchised voters of Michigan and Florida must be counted. You will hear that if she was playing by Republican rules, she’d be the winner.
That’s exactly the problem. Hillary has been playing by the Republican rules throughout her campaign. Right out of the Rove playbook, Hillary’s campaign has been fueled on fear and racism. That’s why she was such a hit in West Virginia last week and that’s why she’ll win a landslide tonight in Kentucky. Hillary has proved that she is the candidate of the lowest common denominator.
When it comes to the national campaign, the Demoicratic Party must aspire to something higher. The lowest common denominator gave us an unwinnable war in Iraq, a miserable economy and a country still bitterly divided.
Americ deserves something better. With an Obama presidency, we can have something better.
Because Hillary remains stubborn, we will continue to go through the motions of finishing out the primaries. On June 3, when the last American has been given the chance to vote, the race will officially end. The Superdelegates will come out of hibernation and give Obama the 2,026 pledged delegates he needs to officially clinch. Nobody wants an ugly scene at the Convention, and there won’t be one.
What happens then?
Hillary may be vicious and egocentric, but she’s not stupid. Once there is no mathematical chance for victory, she will take her spot on the Obama bandwagon. Most likely, she will leap onto it, acting as if all of her vicious attacks were just part of the game. No harm, no foul.
She may have done everything in her power to destroy Obama’ chances for victory in November, but the one thing she won’t do is commit political suicide… even if it kills her to play nice.