HILLARY, AGAIN - April 3, 2008

It has become clear that Sen. Clinton has painted herself into a corner with her venom directed at Sen. Obama. However understandable her disappointment at being upstaged by an upstart that will not wait his turn” to be President, the fact is that she has exhibited herself in such an awful light that there is no possibility that the People will flock to her support, & the disappointment of the wealthy and powerful forces that have invested in the dividends they hoped to have from her presidency will not turn the Democratic Party in her favor. What is less clear is how much damage she has managed to inflict upon Obama. He is a gifted orator & has managed to maintain his cool, for the most part, so as to deflect as much of her venom as is possible. However, she has devotedpartisans who might sink his election in November. These include not only the aforementioned investors, like the pharmaceutical industry and Rupert Murdoch, but also many so devoted to her personally that they would rather see McCain win than Obama. We saw something like that in Wisconsin when the partisans of the losing Democratic candidate for Attorney General failed to support the winner, thus giving us a Republican in that office for at least 4 years. There is at least some concern in that direction and no one knows how deep the split in the Democrats runs, fuelled by identity politics. If the Party must be healed, it is clear that Hillary would accept a non-allergenic candidate like John Edwards rather than lose to Sen. Obama. And it is just possible that Obama would accept that too, if party unity were at stake. No one knows. The ego of anyone who would run for President must be so swollen that it would be almost unthinkable. The unknown factor is the influence of the Party grandees, the “super- delegates” that Clinton thinks may yet pull her chestnuts out of the fire, as well as their own ideas about how hot that fire is for the Party itself. It has long been known that Edwards had the best chance of beating McCain, or any other GOP candidate. If he is called upon to heal the potential breach, he would likely take on the task, if Clinton and Obama agreed to it. Fat chance?