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David
Karki
Read David's bio and previous columns here
March 10, 2008
Have Rush Limbaugh and GOP Crossovers Helped
Revive a Nightmare Ticket?
After Tuesday's primaries it's official
Hillary Clinton has gotten up off the mat, and an opportunity to
possibly finish her off has gone by the wayside. Just how much, if at
all, this might have been due to Republican crossover voting in Texas is
unclear. But one thing is not: The chances of a potential Clinton/Obama
unity ticket, which would have the best shot of all possible tickets of
spelling doom for the GOP in November, have just gotten better.
Yes, there is still the possibility of a
Democratic civil war and intra-party meltdown, which was apparently the
point of conservative crossover voters trying to keep Sen. Clinton's
candidacy alive. Mathematically, it appears almost certain that neither
she nor Sen. Obama can obtain the number of delegates needed to prevent
a brokered convention and keep the nomination from going to the
superdelegates to decide. But to presume that this will automatically
get the fur flying is presuming a bit too much.
After all, liberals may be Marxists through
and through, but they're not stupid. They know that they must avoid such
a conflict at just about all costs, or they will miss out on the
enormous opportunity this election year seems to present for them to
grab all the levers of power. And it's precisely because they haven't
avoided such blunders in years past that they ought to be wise enough to
do so this time.
The most likely way this happens is with a
Clinton/Obama ticket. If Hillary has to resort to anything resembling
shenanigans to get the nomination after Obama led just about all the way
to Denver (and she will), she'll have no choice but to put him on the
ticket. This will unify the Democrats as much as is possible and the
Firsts ticket (woman, black and husband) will represent the most
difficult one to defeat.
At best, the GOP will have to hope that
Obama is smart and brave enough not to hitch his wagon to the Clintons,
even with Hillary offering every bribe and threat simultaneously to
ensure he does, given how badly she'll need him after she takes the
nomination away from him. By all rights, Obama should refuse. Claiming
victimhood status makes him the front-runner for 2012. And should
Hillary lose to John McCain, he'll have the challenger spot against the
oldest incumbent in history (who might not even run again) already sewn
up on November 5.
In short, Obama has no need to be Hillary's
vice president, especially when it's patently obvious that Bill has
always had that de facto role and will never relinquish it. But
for conservatives to rely on Obama having that wisdom, or simply having
the wherewithal to resist Hillary's inducements, was a huge tactical
mistake. We should have done everything in our power (which admittedly
may not be all that much in the end) to take out one major opponent when
the opportunity arose, thus eliminating any possibility of the most
dangerous ticket forming.
Not even the chance to spark the proverbial
circular firing squad among Democratic delegates, which I think many on
the right overestimate, was worth giving Hillary the chance to escape
and live to fight on. We had as much chance as we may ever have and
may never get again to finally remove the Clintons and all their
noxious baggage from the American political scene.
No matter how frightening the prospect of an
Obama administration might be to some, reviving Hillary of all people to
counter him is playing with fire in the extreme. Obama may be naοve and
inexperienced and just plain wrong enough to make even Jimmy Carter look
somewhat wise, but that doesn't mean you keep the intentional evil that
is Hillary around to defeat him. You take Hillary out while you can,
then you take Obama out.
And if the belief of Rush Limbaugh and
others is true, that the GOP will be too timid or impotent to go on
offense against Obama, what on Earth makes them think that Hillary will
be any easier to defeat? Yes, she has huge negatives and the GOP will
take more shots, but she also has the better and tougher defenses. Plus,
you've kept the possibility of the nightmare unity ticket very much
alive, countered only by the chance that the Democrats are dumb enough
to get into yet another bout of fratricide.
This is one high-stakes game to which we've
committed ourselves, with no way to back out. And I fear that we may
very well come to rue the day we eschewed the chance to improve the odds
from 1-in-3 to 1-in-2. After all, isn't defeating one opponent always
easier than defeating two? Especially when the candidate we must back in
order to do this is about as unsuited to the battle and the tactics
required as he could possibly be?
Here's hoping that defeat wasn't just
snatched from the jaws of victory.
© 2008
North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
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