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Now that you have been deprived for several weeks of political advice from this source, you are going to get a break. Like all other brilliant pundits, I am going to predict who rightfully should be the Democrat Party’s nominee for President and Vice-President. The only difference is that whatever I tell you will NOT happen.

Remember how Barack Obama used to be the underdog in his challenge to Hillary Clinton? Last September, you heard the suggestion right here (maybe one of the first in the country) that Hillary should ask Barack to be her running mate on a Clinton-Obama ticket. Subsequent events proved that was correct – only it was backwards. Then followed the Obama surge (Sorry, George W., we can use the word “surge,” too) and it now looks as if he can’t be stopped – up to a point. Slowed maybe in Texas and Ohio, but not stopped. But even, as likely, Obama gets more delegates, and ends up with more enthusiasm, charisma, momentum – all of those things — he will lack the most important thing of all: He won’t have a total of 2,025 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. Neither will Hillary.

Enter Super Delegates. Most of us never heard of the Democrat Party’s Super Delegates (Republicans don’t have them) totaling 796, or about 20% of the total. Suddenly, they are the balance of power. Why? Because neither Barack or Hillary can clinch the nomination without them. Moreover, the two candidates both agree too much. In the Final Round, the only thing left for them is to call each other names. Enough of that and pretty soon the Party will be blown apart. In the bloodletting that is soon to follow, we will learn that desperate political factions do not seek the good of the party or the country, only ways to bludgeon the opponent and win at any cost. So the Super Delegates will have to step in. And their problem will not be to pick who will win but who they want to lose – Obama’s blacks and youngsters or Hillary’s Latinos and women.

Ah ha! You’ve been waiting for The Solution. Here it is: It’s up to Obama. He has to defer to Hillary for the Top Spot. By then, he’s proved he can beat her (or at least stop her), but he can’t deliver the Coup de Grace or he’ll bring the house down. And anyway, is it the right thing for a Young Lochinvar to do to a Damsel in Distress? He has to be chivalrous (we don’t hear that word much in politics, do we?) But he has to make the supreme sacrifice or all is lost. He has to show his true-blue character (if really there) and defer his ultimate ambitions to grab the Big Kazoo. (After all, Lyndon Johnson and George H.W. Bush did the same). He has to acknowledge the priority of age and show deference to womanhood. Yes, there would be a backlash from black partisans, unless Obama is persuasively firm that he’s doing it to “save the party” and both he and Hillary agree to form a “partnership.”

There you are – The Solution. One that is both right and logical. But, of course, it won’t happen because political parties rarely do anything that is right or logical.

–Vic Jose

Vic Jose :: Feb.17.2008 :: Uncategorized ::

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