Clinton, Obama Supporters Meet To Talk About Unity And Defeating McCain (UPDATED)
May 18th, 2008 by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
There are concrete signs that the seemingly irreconcilable camps of Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are moving to begin planning on how to merge their efforts to focus on beating presumptive GOP Presidential nominee Senator John Mccain in November’s general election.
Quite a few pundits (including me) have suggested it looked almost impossible for the Clinton and Obama camps to put aside their differences and keep the eye on the electoral prize after such an acrimonious, divisive and grudge-inducing campaign. But this could prove to be yet ANOTHER bit of 2008 conventional wisdom that in the end proves to be a crock:
Top fundraisers for Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have begun private talks aimed at merging the two candidates’ teams, not waiting for the Democratic nominating process to end before they start preparations for a hard-fought fall campaign.
The Washington Post paints a picture of supporters of two campaigns that want to hit the ground running once there’s only one candidate left to make sure the Democrats don’t hit the ground and fall on their faces due to being unready and divided in the difficult campaign to come:
Despite Obama’s apparently insurmountable lead in delegates needed to claim the nomination, aides to both candidates are resigned to the idea that the Democratic contest will continue at least through June 3, when Montana and South Dakota will cast the final votes of the primary season.
But in small gatherings around Washington and in planning sessions for party unity events in New York and Boston in coming weeks, fundraisers and surrogates from both camps are discussing how they can put aside the vitriol of the past 18 months and move forward to ensure that the eventual nominee has the resources to defeat Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in November.
Mark Aronchick, a Philadelphia lawyer who has raised more than $1 million for Clinton’s bid, said that while her supporters have not given up on their candidate, they recognize the need to start preparing for the general election.
“Only if we do this right, and see this through in the right way, will there be a chance for a full, rapid and largely complete unification of the party,” Aronchick said.
According to the Washington Post, some 35 Clinton and Obama supporters met in Washington last week at a hotel for what Aronchick called a “”grope towards unity.”
To be sure, this ability of these Clinton and Obama supporters to look at their party’s overall goals and begin planning to merge operations to battle as Democrats versus Hillary or Obama supports is not unanimous.
You can see Internet comments and posts that suggest that if one candidate or another is nominated, the defeated candidate’s supporters won’t got for him/her.
And there are some Clinton supporters that insist she has lost mostly due to a ’sexist” campaign. Some of them say they’ll vote for McCain and try to defeat superdelegates that don’t back Clinton. Two members who say they “represent a group of thousands and of women who are very upset” even went on Bill O’Reilly, who peppered them challenging questions. WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.
But with polls showing this could be a blowout Democratic year, Congressional Republicans open showing signs of political flop sweat and near panic, McCain trying desperately to discreetly pull himself away from the most unpopular President in modern history and George Bush yanking him back in or hurting him with his high visibility, logic would dictate that the Democrats will unify and run a more cohesive and smarter political game.
However, logic has not always prevailed in past election years when it seemed “certain” the Democrats would capture the White House. And there are no “givens” on the outcome this election day.
But given Obama’s adept response to Bush’s “appeasement charge” this week, given how Democratic candidates cross the nation can taste this being a Democratic year, and given the fact that the more long-range-goal oriented and less emotional supporters of the Clinton-Obama camps are meeting, perhaps logic will prevail this year…
UPDATE: Be sure to read The Field HERE which has a related post. (We’ve now added The Field to the TMV blogroll under Left Voices, but it’s more center left so we may switch it or add it to Other Voice. But it will be on the TMV blogroll, which we use extensively for doing our posts).
This entry was posted on Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Voting, Republican Party, Women, Newsweek Blogitics, Primaries, Superdelegates, Negative Campaigning, Democratic Party, Elections, Republicans, Democrats, 2008 Elections, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, Sexism, Politics. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
