Sweeping Her Under the Carpet
In many ways, you have to admire Obama’s latest victory. Wanting to avoid a bloody battle with Clinton supporters, he has managed to persuade the DNC that a roll call vote from the floor of the Convention in Denver is a bad idea. I have two responses: first, that halting the vote at this stage will annoy Clinton supporters, and second that quite a lot of good could actually come from a vote.
PoliticalBetting’s Mike Smithson deals with the first in full:
All this will do is fan the flames of discontent and provide great material for the legions of journalists in the city who loathe being “managed”. They want copy that’s not from the official spin machine and this action will provide it.
All it requires is for a couple of highly emotional TV interviews with disgruntled Clinton backers and that becomes the defining “image” of Denver.
The second objection is simply that the roll call vote could be turned to Obama’s advantage. In this period of being parodied by his opponent as a messianic figure, Obama has been slowly slipping in the polls. He has suffered few major setbacks, aside from the well-publicised debate over his pastor’s outspoken comments. The roll call is genuinely seen as a challenge to Obama, and it is a challenge he could do with right now. Overcoming the odds at a partially hostile Convention, and being seen to win his side over, would boost his march to the White House. By ignoring discontent with Clinton and trying to sweep her under the carpet, he is effectively accepting that there is a real threat from his defeated rival, and he is afraid to combat it in public.
What would I do if I were Obama? Hold the roll call vote, and gauge the level of opposition felt towards him. Then I would go out onto the stage in front of live national television and accept the challenge needed to win the X% of trenchant Clinton supporters over, and vow to persuade them and the rest of America that I was ready to lead, to deliver a better America for all. It would, at least, prove that he is not afraid to meet challenges.
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