I believe the talk by both candidates of Democratic unity is being disproved day by day. In part it is the Clinton's impossible and idiotic actions. Graceless in the extreme. But it is even more because of reasons which I have sketched in the following note just posted to the Obama Blog.I believe the result of the current conflict with Clinton people may lead to some of the following possible results.
1.
When Barack wins the nomination, there will be every reason to reconstitute the Democratic Party using his online contributor base as the nucleus. I believe that if Barack is tne nominee contributors within his largely cyber-organization will swell to 10 million by the election.
Attention will spread from Barack to all state races where there is a chance to help create the 65 percent majority needed to govern effectively and get Barack's program done. We will have created a national political machine.
If the fight becomes more bitter -- and I do not agree with the pundits who say all will be well -- and if superdelegates continue to sit on their hands and refuse to move to Barack, the Obama movement will be less and less interested in integrating with the existing Democratic party organization. The non-Barack elements of the party will be so identified with Clinton forces that they will be seen as retrograde and part of the very established order the movement has been set up to move beyond.
In other words, the tougher the fight from now on, the less likely is rapprochement.
3.
If superdelegates consider points one and two, they may move to Barack soon enough to ensure that he will be the nominee.
(I mean in a way that will be inescapable to the denser heads in the media.)
This is about the only way I can see that the Democratic Party can survive this seismic season in anything like its present form.
This would lead to the movement among superdelegates starting very soon to get Hillary out. It would mean the integration of existing pro-Obama leaders (now uncommitted) with the Obama forces. It might also mean a de facto amnesty for Clinton folk who are willing to put their past behind them. In essence these are people who have never believed that Barack was correct in his theories about effective bipartisanship.
I am sure Mark Penn and Howard Wolfson will disagree. We shall see.
