A Caustic Look at the Never-Ending Primary War

Henry Srebrnik, [Summerside, PEI] Journal-Pioneer

Having won the Ohio and Texas primaries, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has regained its momentum. She continues to pummel Barack Obama with her “kitchen sink” strategy, throwing everything from accusations of plagiarism to mendacity at him.

Though she held no elective office until winning a seat as a senator from New York in 2000, she insists she is “ready on day one” to be president. At a recent press conference, Clinton was flanked by some top American military brass, part of her campaign to demonstrate that she’d make a better commander-in-chief than Barack Obama.

Having recently marked International Women’s Day, we might wonder whether this is what feminism has come to – a woman making the case she can play with guns just as well as any of the boys.

Clinton also wants to change the rules to allow new primary elections in Florida and Michigan, two states whose delegates were disqualified by the Democratic National Committee, because they defied the party by holding their primaries too early. They account for 366 pledged delegates.

As it happens, she won both – indeed, in Michigan, Obama’s name wasn’t even on the ballot. She believes she can beat him in both.

Clinton also hopes to win over a majority of the 796 so-called superdelegates, Democratic Party officials who are free to vote for either contender. They account for approximately one fifth of all votes at the convention. (A candidate needs a total of 2,025 delegates to win the nomination.)

This is another reason she wants Florida and Michigan to count, as their 53 superdelegates, currently “frozen” too, would be back in play as well. Clinton thinks she would acquire a large number of those, because she stuck by the two states in their feud with the DNC.

But with Obama holding an advantage of about 140 pledged convention delegates over Clinton, his allies argue that the outcome of the contest should be determined by delegates awarded to winners of primaries or caucuses.

Former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, a co-chair of the Obama campaign, said on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press” that it would be a travesty if Obama maintains his lead among pledged delegates, but an advantage among superdelegates allows Clinton to win the nomination.

"I don't see how we could possibly do anything other than respect the will of the people who have voted in caucus and primary states all over the country,” he insisted.

Obama also finds it incredibly patronizing that the Clinton camp has sent out trial balloons suggesting he might become her vice-presidential running mate on a “dream ticket.” Calling it an example of “chutzpah,” or audacity, his camp noted that he is at the moment leading her in the race!

He has won 29 contests, including the recent victory in Mississippi, to her 17, and a larger share of the overall popular vote.

Clinton’s defenders in the women’s movement insist she has been treated more harshly than she deserves because of her gender. On the other hand, Obama’s allies felt offended when an icon of the women’s movement, Geraldine Ferraro, who has endorsed Clinton and raised money for her campaign, suggested that Obama has only achieved his status in the presidential race because he's African-American.

This is a rather strange statement to make in a country where within living memory many Blacks couldn’t even vote or run for office. Clinton called Ferraro’s remarks regrettable.

Ever since Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, stole the recent Kenyan presidential election from Raila Odinga, a member of the rival Luo ethnic group, a joke circulating in that African country has it that “it’s easier for a Luo to become president of the United States than of Kenya.” (Barack Obama’s father was a Kenyan Luo.)

However, this may no longer be the case.