You know, just when I think Sen. Obama’s arrogance couldn’t offer me any more fodder, there’s more. He’s starting to remind me of those late-night TV commercials for the latest home-cleaning product, where they keep throwing more stuff at you to get you to buy. On sale now: the Pride-O-Matic! More egotism and arrogance than the other leading candidates!
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal examined the supposed negotiations going on between the Clinton and Obama campaigns. Because Sen. Clinton has so many delegates, she’s entitled under party rules to put her name into nomination. But if the report is correct, the Obama campaign’s trying to avoid that because they fear reminding everyone of how perilously close she came to beating him (even with all the dirty tricks her own party pulled against her).
There are a number of possible compromises they could work out before the end of August, involving various scenarios giving Hillary some public recognition in exchange for her agreeing to withdraw her name at one point or other in the process. But all of them contain the possibility of showing huge support among the party trench-toilers for our gal, which would embarrass and undercut Obama’s coronation nomination. Cut her out of the nomination process and risk protests on the floor of the convention. Include her and risk showing how un-unified the party is. Anything other than their perfectly-scripted Potemkin Convention would reveal the depth and breadth of the anger among Hil supporters for being shoved out of the process. That’s hardly propitious for a November victory.
Of course, the Obama camp could be afraid of contagious buyer’s remorse before Denver . His support’s already softening among his base because of his recent FISA vote and Republican-lite talk. What if he continued to shoot himself in the foot so badly that superdelegates considered him unelectable in November? If Hillary were still technically eligible for the nomination under such conditions, only a relative handful of superdelegates would have to switch votes to secure her nomination. Could that be the real reason they’re trying desperately to get her to deal away her rights on the convention floor?
But wait! There’s more!
The DNC has announced that The Precious will accept his coronation nomination at the 76,000-seat Invesco Field at Mile High, instead of the convention location (which holds about 20,000). The media types are already salivating over his magnanimous offering to the masses.
I think he just took a big, long asparagus-stinky piss all over the average Americans who actually get up off their asses to be involved in American politics.
Most convention delegates aren’t rich, powerful, famous people. Many scrape together the money to attend the convention by working overtime, pinching pennies, hoarding vacation days, even holding parties for friends and well-wishers to toss cash in the kitty. They’re young, old, middle-aged; white, black, yellow, brown, and every shade in between; white-collar, blue-collar, pink-collar. Their defining characteristic is their willingness to work, day in, day out, year after year, in local and state politics. These are the people who choose to attend the most boring meetings imaginable and become experts in wonk talk and parliamentary procedure. They force-feed themselves policy papers so that they can make sure we develop sensible public policy with input from everyday people, like them. They sacrifice time with their families and friends to become informed participants in the great American experiment. They think voting for the right candidates, from town meeting to president, is more important than voting for the next American Idol.
And Obama just whizzed all over them. By moving the coronation acceptance to the football stadium, Obama’s saying, “Your time away from your families doesn’t matter to me. Your study, your hard work, your admirable tolerance for boring meetings, your dedication, they’re irrelevant. The adoring throngs matter.”
Don’t mistake my criticism of Obama for newbie-bashing. I understand that many people don’t get involved in politics at the nuts-and-bolts level because they’re intimidated. I was one of them until I discovered, by mere luck, how easy it was to get involved. You can volunteer a little or a lot, but all you need to get in the door is a willingness to learn and to labor. It’s good for more people to want to be involved in the political process, and that includes Obama supporters, too. Democracy thrives on involvement. But being politically active isn’t just showing up at a stadium for a concert and a speech. Participation takes work. And if you want to encourage people to participate, it’s probably a bad idea to piddle on the people who actually do participate already.
The speech is scheduled for the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. I’m sure Dr. King would be pleased to see more Americans taking public process to heart. But what would he think of tossing aside the people who have long toiled in the trenches for liberty and justice in favor of bread and circuses?
