Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Retaining Influence vs. Winning in November

In watching the morning news while getting my caffeine fix – which was much needed after the birthday celebration last night – Chris Matthews was being interviewed on what is going on within the Democratic Party in the primary races: Obama has broken out and is challenging the powers that be within the party that are aligned with Hillary Clinton. Matthews believes they (the lobby interests, other special interest groups, etc., players in the Democratic establishment) will be doing everything they can to stop the Obama so as to not lose their power and influence. I suspect that Matthews is correct and in my view, Hillary and these players in the establishment are being very short sighted. I continue to believe that Hillary will have a much more difficult time winning in November than Obama would, particularly since she will unite the warring factions within the GOP like no one else can on the Democrat side.

If various dirty tricks are employed against Obama, the party runs the risk of (1) alienating the black vote and (2) disillusioning younger voters who are tired of the same old “business as usually” with a result that many opt out of voting. If this happens to a significant degree, Hillary’s chances of winning in the general election are made even worse. Thus, these interest groups in effect would rather retain their enhanced power and influence within the party as opposed to winning in November, 2008. Is it better for the Democrat Party and the country to have the same tired groups retain power within the Party and have a Republican in the White House? I think not and find it very sad that some are putting themselves clearly ahead of the interest of the Party as a whole, not to mention the country. Personal greed is one of the biggest problem with politicians today. I sincerely hope that they do not prevail.

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