Tuesday's results could mean chaos for DNC
By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published March 4, 2008 at 11:26 p.m.
Updated March 4, 2008 at 11:26 p.m.
There was more confusion than closure in Tuesday's presidential primaries, preserving the prospect of brutal chaos leading right up to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's victories in Ohio and Rhode Island helped her reclaim a share of the momentum after 12 straight defeats, including Tuesday's Vermont primary, to Sen. Barack Obama.
Obama easily won Vermont. The day's biggest battlefield, Texas, went to Hillary Clinton late Tuesday night.
Clinton vowed to fight on — and on and on. "We're going on, we're going strong and we're going all the way," Clinton said in a speech televised from Columbus, Ohio.
The lack of a clear, knockout blow by Obama was a "dream scenario" of sorts — not only for the former first lady, but for some Republicans, too.
After all, they're hoping the Democratic presidential contest remains a slow, bloody march to the floor of the Pepsi Center, one that damages the party's eventual nominee before the ultimate showdown with Republican Sen. John McCain.
Before the votes were counted, Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, said he was rooting for Clinton victories to turn "the Democratic race into chaos."
Already, Wadhams thinks Clinton has "drawn some blood" on Obama with two weeks of blistering, often sarcastic attacks on his preparedness to be commander in chief.
"She's making some of the best arguments for why Barack Obama is incapable" or unprepared to be president, Wadhams said with glee. "That will play right into the John McCain campaign ... Barack Obama's vulnerabilities are starting to show through."
Even conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh had been cheering on Clinton, telling an interviewer: "I want Hillary to stay in this. ... This is too good a soap opera."
Clinton's Ohio win revived some chatter that there could be a "brokered convention" decided by party insiders at the August gathering in Denver.
Still, Democrats called that highly unlikely and said that even a prolonged, rough-and-tumble primary fight would threaten the party's chances in the November general election.
Sen. Ken Salazar, who remains an undecided superdelegate, pointed to the high Democratic turnout that has dwarfed Republican participation in state after state.
"It bodes well for any Democratic nominee in November," he said, adding that he hoped Clinton and Obama could avoid "scorched- earth" negative attacks.
"I think there's a concern that it will become a negative campaign that goes on for a long time to come," Salazar said. "That may not happen."
Rep. Ed Perlmutter, an Obama supporter, said a tough primary can be good for Democrats, and he pointed to the bruising, intraparty fight he survived before eventually winning his congressional seat in 2004.
"Primaries are fights among friends. That's never fun. That's never pretty," Perlmutter said. "But having been through a primary, they do prepare you. They get you battle-ready."
Even with Clinton's victories on Tuesday, Obama was expected to keep most of his lead in the actual delegate count. Still, with Clinton signaling a willingness to fight all the way to the finish, convention planners are left in their own sort of limbo.
At the Denver Host Committee, they weren't picking sides in the Clinton-Obama battle. But communications director Chris Lopez said that if and when the party does settle on a presumptive nominee, "it clears a path for our fundraising efforts" and also allows planners to start tailoring some of the festivities to fit the candidate's style.
"For us, it really doesn't matter who the candidate is, but it does matter that there is a candidate," Lopez said. Although the committee is ahead of the fundraising pace Boston set in 2004, the uncertainty hasn't helped.
"We know donors who aren't ready to help us because they're consistently, continually helping their (primary) candidate," Lopez said. "That's maybe the biggest thing."
No matter when the race is decided, the Democratic National Convention Committee is putting all the pieces in place so the nominee can put his or her stamp on the convention — sometime.
"Bottom line: We're prepared for a seamless integration once a presumptive nominee emerges and poised to pull off a flawless Democratic National Convention that will help put our presidential nominee on the path to victory for the November 2008 election," spokeswoman Natalie Wyeth said.
sprengelmeyerm@SHNS.com
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March 5, 2008
12:40 a.m.
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politwriter writes:
The Texas results illustrate the serious fissure between Black voters - 20% of the Dem. electorate there and Latino voters -- 32% of the Dem electorate there. Blacks went overwhelmingly for Obama, Latinos for Clinton. A prominent Texas Latina leader said that Latinos were culturally averse to supporting a Black candidate.
How will Black Democrats react if the first serious Black Presidential candidate is perceived to have been shot down by Latinos? How will Latino voters go if presented with the option of a Black Presidential candidate facing a pro-amnesty White Republican?
Could be that the Democrat coalition is highly unstable.
March 5, 2008
9:28 a.m.
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greenleaf writes:
SASQUATCH,
My gosh I agree with you again! One of us must have been hit by lightening! Could bigfoot not only exist but be ethical as well? I'm proud of you man, you seem to be evolving:>)