The Absurd Report

Will the Democrats Commit Political Suicide? By Gabor Steingart

The Bear on Apr 28 2008 at 8:26 am | Filed under: Election 08’

Democratic voters just can’t make up their minds between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. In Pennsylvania, they denied him victory but spared her defeat. It will be the job of the superdelegates to commit political murder — but will it mean suicide for the party?

After the confetti has been shaken out of the hair and the party balloons have deflated, what is left from Tuesday’s election night is a disturbing message: There is nothing to celebrate.

The winner is the loser. But the loser is not the winner. Clinton’s victory was not big enough to snatch the nomination from Obama. But neither was his star power enough to woo the voters in the center.

It seems the race is jinxed: He was handed a defeat when he needed a victory, and she secured a victory when only an improbable triumph would have helped her.

Barring a miracle, Clinton’s role at the Democratic Party convention in Denver in August will be limited to guest speaker. But Obama will go into the actual presidential election badly damaged.

On the night of Obama’s first primary win, in the state of Iowa, this columnist wrote “(Obama) has scant hope of reaching the White House. He’s too young, too inexperienced, too vague, and for many Americans, too black. His magic words about the era of change, of hope, of an America he will unite — all that will evaporate like morning mist.”