Posted on 05/10/2008 11:55:54 PM PDT by lowbuck
Bill Clinton stands on a small stage in this tiny town, torrential rain beating on the rooftop, his all-white crowd of coalminers, schoolteachers and union members cheering him on. “Don’t let them tell you she can’t win this thing,” he hollers, his voice hoarse after another day of campaigning. “I’m telling you, she can win this thing, because of people like you, and places like this.”
There is huge affection for Mr Clinton in West Virginia, where his wife faces her next primary contest with Barack Obama on Tuesday. The former First Lady holds an overwhelming 25-point lead among one of the whitest, oldest and most rural electorates in America. The state voted for her husband twice, but backed President Bush in the last two elections.
Yet as the former President appears before loyal crowds across small town Appalachia, and his wife stubbornly refuses to heed calls for her to quit the race, there is a palpable sense for many Democrats that they are witnessing a changing of the guard, the final days of the House of Clinton, after 16 years of dominance.
Even as Mr Clinton spoke, Mr Obama was paying a surprise visit to the House of Representatives, where congressman flocked around him, grasping for the hand of the man many believe is about to become their new leader. Five more super-delegates pledged their support for Mr Obama yesterday, including one who had previously backed Mrs
But if Mr Obama has his sights on a general election against John McCain, he has a more immediate and equally testing challenge: how to unite a party, and a Democratic electorate, where large, crucial swaths of voters – especially white, blue-collar and the elderly – remain passionately loyal to the Clintons, and openly hostile to him.
As Mr Clinton’s barnstorming performance in Fairlea proved, he is still a potent force, and Mr Obama is going to need him, his wife and their supporters on side if he harbours any hope of reaching the White House.
It will not be easy. Such is the hostility among many of their supporters, that nearly half of Mrs Clinton’s backers in Indiana said they would not vote for Mr Obama if he were nominated. More than a third in Pennsylvania said the same. Not one Clinton supporter met by The Times in West Virginia said they would turn out for the Illinois senator. “You’d have to twist my arm a long way,” said Lonnie Ward, 62, a retired miner queueing to see Mr Clinton next to Cowboy Dan’s Meathouse. “Bill’s my main man.” Peggy Bland, 69, said: “She’s a strong, strong, strong lady.” And Mr Obama? “Oh no, I wouldn’t vote for him.”
Matthew Towsley, who has been selling Hillary and Obama badges, said: “It’s got real bad. Unless they can put them on the same ticket, there’s going to be trouble.”
Mr Obama’s big win in North Carolina last week, and Mrs Clinton’s narrow victory in Indiana, means the nomination is within his grasp. He is planning to declare a victory of sorts on May 20, after the contests in Kentucky and Oregon, when he expects to have secured a majority among the pledged delegates on offer.
Yet Mrs Clinton and her husband passionately believe that she is a better candidate to take on Mr McCain. She correctly pointed out on Thursday that she has a much broader base of support, even plunging into the minefield of racial politics by declaring that Mr Obama’s backing among “white Americans” was weakening.
In recent contests, she has won Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana with overwhelming backing from whites, blue-collar voters, women, and voters over 45. Mr Obama has been propelled toward the nomination mostly by African-Americans, the young, and the well educated. Paul Begala, a former Clinton strategist, inartfully summed up their case: “We can’t win just with African-Americans and egg-heads.”
Howard Dean, the Democratic party chairman, whose once-promising 2004 presidential bid collapsed in Iowa, said he spent months trying to persuade his supporters to rally behind John Kerry, the nominee. And they did not even dislike Mr Kerry. Gary Hart said that after he lost his divisive primary battle against Walter Mondale in 1984, he worked tirelessly – and held more than 40 campaign events – imploring his supporters to back the nominee. “And I was not able to move [them],” he said.
Even if Mrs Clinton loses, she will return to the Senate one of the most powerful politicians in the US. Yet for now, she has tens of millions of supporters across America that believe the House of Clinton must not fall.
Your thoughts.
If Obama is POTUS and Hillary is VPOTUS during an international crisis, she would not be able to keep her mouth shut, and would be in his face arguing and throwning lamps ad nauseum.
And according to all accounts, Michelle hates Hillary’s guts. We all know what that means - no Obama/Clinton 2008!
I am hoping House of Klinton will fall and fall on top of their heads.
Middle America will not elect a black neo-Marxist. Paul Begala had it right, there aren’t enough “eggheads and African-Americans”.
Why would Barry want those two looking over his shoulder, sucking all the air out? And I just can't see her taking second fiddle. I bet they offer her a Supreme Court seat if she gets out fast. They'll also probably tell her that if she doesn't step down, her influence in the Dem party will be gone forever.
It may be that one way to party unity would be for Obama to pick Clinton for his VP, but I don’t see it happening. She’d be second fiddle, and she’s had her sights set on first chair lo, these many years, putting up with her hubby’s shenanigans to use him and his name to that end. Plus, the problem arises of what to do with Bill.
I agree. Did Baldwin leave yet?
Since you mentioned our dear “Arreck”, I read a story a few days ago that he’s considering running for office. Now, he didn’t say exactly which office, but he did say that he’d be sure to be nicer to his daughter in future answering machine messages!
Hussein or McCain.
take your pick
I pick the old fart.
Good for us!
"And while it would make sense to have Hillary on the ticket as VP given the hate between Barry O and she I just don't see it happening."
JFK and Lyndon Johnson supposedly disliked each other intensely, and yet they came together to make a winning ticket. Politics makes strange bedfellows.
Could you imagine having Bill and Hillary as your co-vice prez? I wouldn’t want it. And Bill is a loose canon in front of the camera.
Just as you said, too much drama.
As much as I dislike Hillary, she is starting to look like the closest thing to “moderate” in the DNC. The rest are radical marxists.
But she's not. She did this sudden makeover when she started on this plan and went into the senate, but I don't believe it's real.
With "Election '08: Hussein vs McCain" as a slogan, McCain will win. Obama wants to avoid using his middle name, but since it rhymes with McCain, it will play well in the MSM!
I keep thinking the same thing, but I don't underestimate the ability of the Clintonites to convince Michelle that it's in her "best interest for her health" that she's quiet on the matter.
Can you just see it? Michelle cans Hillary as the veep, then the leaks start appearing in the newspapers. Michelle's "this or that". Barry has all sorts of scandals leaked, imaginary or not. It costs them the presidency.
Then what? Michelle's got nothing but a pile of cash, an affirmative action job and a senator husband who may not be competent enough to fend off the next election challenger when socialist policies really start taking a toll (the last one was Doctor Alan Keyes, who's inseparable decency and goodness cost him the election.)
Exactly.
Do Obama's handlers know better than to have him ride in a motorcade?
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