It’s About Making Babies!

Tam at View from the Porch considers Barack Obama to have cost himself the Pennsylvania primary over his ‘bitter voters’ comments.

I don’t appreciate either Democratic candidate. But I am not so sure that Tam has the answer why Hilary pulled this one out.

Party Politics has long been a by-word for crooked dealing, for back-room deals, power brokering. When ‘campaign finance reform’ was big news and proof of everyone being ‘ethical’, the labor unions, among others, always showed up big-time with immense smear campaign ads, that didn’t count as ‘campaign finance’ and thus unregulated. The smear ads just happened to support Democrat candidates. The Republican party is about the same. Only the Republicans are more dues-oriented, stricter hierarchy. That can be the only reason such lame candidates as Bob Dole managed a nomination – not through voter approval, but prior arrangement within the party. He ‘earned’ his nomination before the first primary. John McCain, son of privilege, pulled the same stunt.

How does an abusive Arkansas girl move to New York and get elected Senator at the next election? By managing the Democratic party. Hilary Rodham Clinton has the Democratic party machine behind her.

Barack Obama wasn’t despised by the Democratic National Party, but he was an outsider. He tried to pull a Jimmy Carter, and outsider coming from relative obscurity to win popular appeal. In one sense the choice between Obama and Clinton is a choice for or against power brokers and in-dealing within the Democratic party.

So, Barack made his ‘bitter voter’ comment. And his preacher made hay with his flamboyant ‘oppressed’ presentations and hogging his moments of camera time. And Obama lost control of his appeal to the public, or at least it slipped. The Democratic party has a vested interest in Hilary doing well – the back room dealers might lose their leverage next time around, if an outsider can beat them. Hilary clearly gains, as any opponent would, where Obama lets his image slip. Obama, after all, needs popular support. Barack is winging this thing without the whole-hearted support of the party Big Boys. They are not just willing to let the campaign go on – their influence today and in the future is strengthened as Obama slips.

In my view, Barack Obama has a couple of dark clouds hanging over him, that he hasn’t adequately addressed. One is being African American, and running for a nation of mixed races. Caucasions have been running the White House since the nation began, they don’t have to explain that their race won’t keep them from performing effectively. Obama was raised Muslim, and schooled radical Muslim. He hasn’t explained how this background will affect his presidency, if he is elected. John F. Kennedy was the last president with a questioned (at the time) religious background, and he clearly and frequently campaigned that being Catholic would not affect his presidency.

Barack Obama hasn’t made me believe he wants to run the United States. I am still concerned he wants to rule the African Americans, and the Muslims, and let the rest of the country take care of itself if it can. And he needs to explain how he feels about the Muslim teachings of ‘kill the infidel’ – different Muslim teachings take different perspectives. The Presidency of the United State is not all-powerful. Just as the current Democratic-ruled congress has shown it can destroy an economy despite the president, Obama could only lead the government, and nation, where it wanted to go. He could, however, divide the nation and destroy security and stability in such a way as to recall the hatreds and bloodshed of the Civil War of the 1860′s.

What I think happened in Pennsylvania, is that Obama lost control of his appeal to the average voter. Clinton and the Democratic machine took advantage. The ‘Clinton victory’ was more about ‘Democratic party politics returning to back room dealing and business as usual’ than about voters choosing a candidate.

All this assumes, of course, that both Clinton and Obama aren’t riding a tide of resignation. Every one of the candidates I considered appropriate, ethical, and responsible have already fallen out of the race. Now we are just picking over the crumbs, trying to toss out the grossest leavings and making do with what is left.