It’s crunch time for U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Tomorrow the registered voters of Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island will either close the door on Ms. Clinton’s attempt to move back into the White House by denying her one or more major victories, or allow her to convince herself, her husband, and their various minions of mirth, to continue throwing brickbats, mud and whatever else they can find at their Democratic opponent.
Ms. Clinton continues to ride along upon long-nurtured name recognition, even after having lost 11 (or 12) consecutive contests and falling behind by about 150 delegates, while surrogates do their level bests to slander and demean Mr. Obama, and scare voters into bringing a new era of corruption back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Through it all, Senator Clinton has the temerity to insist how honored she is to share the spotlight with Senator Obama, and claim a genuine liking of, and friendship with, her opponent from Illinois. Perhaps her strategies and tactics will have no lasting effect on the Democratic electorate, even if they succeed. Perhaps Democrats, Independents, disaffected Republicans and others will overlook Ms. Clinton’s perennially high negatives, and lift her to victory over Senator John McCain.
At this point, however, I think it more likely that what Team Clinton has been doing will have the effect suggested by Benjamin Franklin in the following observation:
“Thou canst not joke an enemy into a friend, but thou may’st a friend into an enemy.”
Wouldn’t it be ironic if nominating Ms. Clinton was the best thing the Democratic Party could do for the Republicans in 2008?
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