Hillary Clinton: The Democrats’ Worst Enemy

It was quite disturbing to hear Clinton play the race card recently and claim that Obama cannot win the support of “hard-working, white Americans”. While Bill Clinton has injected the issue of race into the campaign on a number of occasions, Hillary had avoided doing so until recently. One must wonder why she has chosen this point, when her chances of winning the nomination are virtually nil, to make such a divisive, race-baiting statement.

Likewise, Clinton’s continued efforts to compare the “disenfranchisement” of Florida and Michigan to the disputed election of 2000 seem to make no sense except if Morris’ theory is correct. By all accounts, Clinton would not be able to secure the nomination even if the delegates from Florida and Michigan are seated, so why would she make an argument which is unlikely to have any effect other than to further fracture the divided Democratic Party?

While the Democratic Party certainly did create an unfair mess by penalizing Florida and Michigan, to compare the current situation to the debacle of 2000 is not only absurd, it threatens to undermine Obama’s chances of carrying these two vital states in the general election.

The Clinton campaign agreed to the rules established by the party and only chose to make an issue of Florida and Michigan when it realized that doing so would help her make up her deficit in both pledged delegates and popular vote. While it would be unfortunate to deny these states a say in selecting the Democratic nominee, Clinton’s proposed solution would be even more unfair. The Obama campaign played by the rules and didn’t campaign in Florida and removed his name from the ballot in Michigan.