Saturday, February 9, 2008

The Perfect Storm

It was not supposed to happen this way for the Democrats. This was supposed to be a coronation, not a contest. Clintonista Terry McAuliffe, as Democrat Party chair, engineered the front-loading of the primary system that was supposed to deliver the nomination to Senator Clinton and then give her ample time to mount an early Presidential campaign against the Republicans. What is it they say about the plans of mice and men?

The Democrats have a contest on their hands and a perfect storm brewing. Their practice of proportional delegate distribution coupled with the closeness of the race between Obama and Clinton virtually ensures that neither candidate will have a majority of the elected delegates by the time of their convention in late August. This would lead to two things, a fight over the discounted Michigan and Florida delegates and a possible nomination decision by a set of unelected political delegates (super-delegates), over seven hundred of them in all.

This potentially puts the Democrats in the place that they decidedly do not want to be, fighting one another on the eve of beginning a campaign against a somewhat united Republican party. The options are numerous and none of them are good…for the Dems, that is. If the nomination is decided by a cadre of political hacks, there will certainly be anger and frustration on the losing side. If the losing side happens to have gone into the convention with the most elected delegates, that anger will turn to a white-hot fury that will doom the Dems election chances in November.

If Hillary Clinton loses the nomination, no one expects her to take the Mitt Romney high road. Such a classy move is not in the Clinton playbook. The Clintons will likely initiate legal action to have the Michigan and Florida delegates included. They will not go quietly into the night but will risk burning the whole house down rather than admitting defeat. As was said, all the available options spell trouble for the Dems in November.

As a Republican, I am, of course, delighted by this turn of events. I also want to speak to my fellow conservative Republicans. Let us come together behind our eventual nominee, Sen. John McCain. I have disagreed with him on several issues but he is infinitely preferable to the Democrat alternative. Let the Dems fight it out in August and go into November divided. Let us, as Republicans, as believers in free markets and of the freedom of the individual, go into November united, determined to keep this great nation going in the direction of freedom and prosperity.

It is our choice. Let us choose rightly.

-- Submitted by B. Bryant

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