While Democrats rant and rave about Hillary and Obama, the Republicans are watching with barely contained excitement, keeping their eyes on the prize: the person who will fill the next opening on the Supreme Court.
It is the Republicans fondest hope that Obama becomes the nominee because most polls show that 38% of Hillary supporters say they will not vote for him or will vote for John McCain. Meanwhile, being led by Kennedy, Pelosi and Reid, Democrats in power continue to foster the dream that the party will come together once a nominee is chosen. It is this kind of thinking that will hand the presidency and perhaps some seats in the House and Senate to the Republicans. This current division among Democrats is a wound that runs very deep and it may take decades to heal it.
The old guard in the Far Left of Democratic party would rather lose the presidency to McCain than see power slip out of their hands. If Clinton were to become the nominee, and win, the influence of Kennedy, et al, would slip away from them. Politicians who endorsed Obama would go back home and work on making excuses for their choice.
While both front runners in the Democratic party have negatives, Obama has three that will have the most impact against him: Ayers, Rezko and Wright. Add to that his remarks before the Pennsylvania primary about small-town folks being angry and bitter and cling to guns and religion. All polls show that he has alienated the working-class voters, the so-called Reagan Democrats. Older women support Hillary by huge margins, not because they are devoted party members but because she is a symbol of how far a woman has come in their lifetimes. That will not be transferred to Obama in a general election.
Remembering how Karl Rove’s strategy worked to re-elect Bush in spite of the negatives about his behavior in the National Guard, the war in Iraq and the Swiftboating of Kerry, it should come as no surprise that the Republicans expect that Obama’s connection to the corrupt Chicago political machine will provide an easy target if he is the Democratic nominee for president. There is already a rumor circulating around the Internet that Rezko is prepared to trade testimony against Obama in return for a lighter sentence.
The only hope for the Democrats to win in the November is a Clinton/Obama ticket, even though the two dislike each other. Whether Ted Kennedy will allow this to happen when it means his control of the party is over is yet to be seen. How this is answered may determine who will be the next appointment to the Supreme Court.
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