If Hillary Clinton had no other reason to keep running for the Democratic presidential nomination, it would be to demonstrate that Tim Russert, Keith Olbermann, Maureen Dowd, David Broder and the Beltway media gasbags don't decide American elections.
Last week, Barack Obama, the supposedly inevitable Democratic nominee, lost the West Virginia primary by 41 points. Democrats haven't taken the presidency without winning the Mountain State since 1916. To use a geographically appropriate metaphor, if there has ever been a canary-in-a-coal-mine primary, that was it. Naturally, the media consensus saw a meaningless result in a race they'd already called for Obama. Evidently, bitter West Virginia rednecks don't watch cable television.
In 2000, the same pundit chorus urged Al Gore to quit in Florida for the sake of the country (and the Republican Party). Everybody knows how that worked out. Today, Gore's a Nobel laureate. George W. Bush -- like Obama -- a uniter, not a divider, became the most unpopular, ineffective president in U.S. history. Ever heard any media princelings explain how they went so comprehensively wrong? Me neither.
If nominated, Obama can't possibly defeat John McCain without bringing Clinton voters to him. Recently,
however, I've been hearing from many passionate Democrats who say they can't and won't vote for him in November. So I asked a few to explain why.
Mine is no scientific survey. Ranging from 26 to 86, my correspondents live in seven states in the North, South and Midwest. They don't know each other personally. None participates in politics except on a local, volunteer basis. I chose them because they're unusually articulate.
Most think Obama is a sure loser in the McGovern, Dukakis tradition. They believe he's totally unqualified. "I've voted for every Democrat from president to dog-catcher since 1952. That will end with Obama," insists H., in Maine. "He won't get 150 electoral votes, more than he deserves. The Democratic Party's been teetering on the edge of extinction. Obama's arrogance will kill it...
"Just four years out of the state Senate. If he were white or female, his candidacy would be a joke. Imagine if he'd opted to run for vice president with Hillary. McCain would lose, Democrats would come close to 60 Senate seats and pick up 35 in the House. The Democratic Left's need to swoon after eight years of a moron, coupled with unbridled Clinton-hatred, will produce a disaster for the party and country."
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