Is Hillary trying to destroy the Democratic Party?
The possible kerfuffle over the "super" delegates, the sudden flip-flop in deciding to push for Michigan's and Florida's delegates to be seated, and now this less than honest scheme:
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign intends to go after delegates whom Barack Obama has already won in the caucuses and primaries if she needs them to win the nomination.
This strategy was confirmed to me by a high-ranking Clinton official on Monday. And I am not talking about superdelegates, those 795 party big shots who are not pledged to anybody. I am talking about getting pledged delegates to switch sides.
What? Isn’t that impossible? A pledged delegate is pledged to a particular candidate and cannot switch, right?
Wrong.
Pledged delegates are not really pledged at all, not even on the first ballot. This has been an open secret in the party for years, but it has never really mattered because there has almost always been a clear victor by the time the convention convened.
I've went from thinking that Hillary would be a bad choice for the Democrats simply because of the hatred she inspires in Republicans, to deciding she would be a pretty decent candidate early in the primary season, to now realizing why the Republicans hate her and her husband so much.
The whole win whatever the cost, whatever the rules that have to be broken, whatever the bridges that must be burned, or who has to be thrown under the bus.
I can only hope that the Democratic Party itself doesn't allow such tactics to prevail, that the leadership decides to honour the will of the voters and not to enable the Clinton's personal crusade for power. Because if Obama walks into the convention with a considerable lead in pledged delegates and walks out having lost because of backroom dealings, it will tear the party to pieces and hand McCain the presidency.
It is no way to pick a candidate, which I've been saying since I first learned somewhat how the primary system works. And I'm not too fond of the electoral college thing either. The US electoral system needs some serious reforming, but that's unlikely to happen so long as the system so heavily favours the people who can get elected in it.
