By Falana Fray
Win, lose or draw, superdelegates will call the knockout punch at the Democratic National Convention. The question now is, will they back a presidential candidate leading in popular votes and pledge delegates, or favor the candidate who trails by a 10 percent margin, notwithstanding voter outcries if that happens?
Fresh from her triumphant victory in the Pennsylvania primary, but trailing behind Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) by ten points, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is still down, but not out. Obama leads Clinton 1,719 to 1,586, CNN estimates.
With the win, Clinton picked up 81 of Pennsylvania’s 158 delegates, while Obama won 69. Eight delegates have yet to be allocated.
On NBC’s “Today” show, Clinton said “At the end of the day, people have to decide who they think would be not only the best president, which is the most important question, but who would be the better candidate against Sen. McCain. And I think the coalition that I’ve put together, as demonstrated once again last night, is a very strong base for us to beat Sen. McCain.”
That said, American voters better brace themselves for another round of bitter and negative campaigning. With two more weeks to go until the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, where the stakes are high and 187 in pledge delegates are up for grabs, will Hillary Clinton continue on the low road to the DNC, while Barack Obama hopes to lead a clean victory as well?
There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton packs a mean punch as a tough and formidable candidate. But are her negative campaign attacks really necessary after she has consistently stated throughout her campaign that her 35 years of experience (including eight years as first lady) are all she needs to win the race for the White House?
By invoking fear and scare tactics to convince voters she can save the nation, it is vividly apparent that she lacks experience in handling upsets. While Obama takes her attacks, he continues to take the high road, even after falling short in his effort to close the polarizing competition. Why? He understands that moving on to more important campaign issues like the economy, health care, national security, the war in Iraq and the housing crisis in America are more important to voters than redefining the word “bitter” in reference to his comments he made at a San Francisco fund-raiser about small-town Americans in Pennsylvania clinging to guns and religion because of their economic hardships.
Despite his defeat, Obama gained the support of Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry, a superdelegate to the national convention.
Whichever candidate turns out to be the winner or the sore loser at the Democratic National Convention, both candidates will not only come out bruised and burned out, but also recognize that they might have seriously wounded their party by polarizing the Democratic electorate. The effect of the former would seemingly hand Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) the ammunition he needs against his opponent (courtesy of the Democrats) to lock and load voters to the polls in favor of Republicans in November.
Moreover, party leaders are growing impatient and fatigued with the drawn-out slugfest and are watching nervously as McCain climbs in opinion polls. Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, says he is not prepared to wait until the end of primary season on June 3 to hear from remaining superdelegates because he fears the prolonged fighting might do damage to the party. “I need them to say who they’re for, starting now,” he told CNN. “We cannot give up two or three months of active campaigning and healing time.”
Okay, so what if Obama wins both Indiana and North Carolina on May 6? Will Clinton concede and bow out gracefully or will she continue to take her votes, victories and pledge delegates all the way to the National Convention? Not likely if she doesn’t have the financial support to keep her campaign afloat and steamroll her opponent. Keep in mind, a serious defeat in states she’s expected to win will slow the money down. And then she’ll be out for the count. But if she keeps winning enough primaries to maintain the cash flow, she will keep campaigning-no matter what her eventual prospects for securing the nomination may be.
At this point, it looks like any card can play after seeing her decisive victory in Pennsylvania. Clinton’s campaign chair Terry McAuliffe claimed they have raised $10 million in 24 hours through online fund-raising, once again boosting her fight fuel to go into Indiana and North Carolina in an effort to persuade superdelegates that she is the best candidate for the job.
For now, the question on the mind of voters and superdelegates is simply who can beat John McCain and lead the Democratic Party to victory in the presidential election? If the answer to that question is “both,” then the next question may boil down to whether America wants a white woman or black man for president. Whichever candidate the remaining superdelegates throw their support to, either candidate will surely make history.
These are the dates of the remaining Democratic primaries and the number of pledged delegates at stake:
May 3: Guam (4)
May 6: North Carolina (115), Indiana (72)
May 13: West Virginia (28)
May 20: Oregon (52), Kentucky (51)
June 1: Puerto Rico (55)
June 3: Montana (16), South Dakota (15)
August 25-28: Democratic National Convention
Falana Fray, Class of 2005, is a freelance writer and public relations consultant and a Presidential Fellow of the Center for The Study of the Presidency in Washington, DC. You may e-mail her at [email protected].