Letter From America
Hillary Clinton pursues the "Tonya Harding Option"
WITH the "kitchen sink" strategy of throwing everything at Barack Obama proving ineffective, Hillary Clinton has now adopted the "Tonya Harding Option" of politically incapacitating Obama. Before the US figure skating team trial for the 1994 Winter Olympics, to improve her chances for selection, Tonya Harding had her henchmen club her rival Nancy ("Why me? Why me?") Kerrigan to her knees during practice! Hillary has switched her strategy from projectile-throwing on inflicting permanent damage to Obama through close encounters of the painful kind!
Poor Hillary! She was presumed the inevitable Democratic presidential nominee destined for an easy November victory that would catapult her into the White House. She was dreaming of the mahogany bed in the Lincoln bedroom in the White House. Suddenly, she found her path blocked by a mahogany-coloured man. Like Tonya Harding, she had to get rid of her competition somehow.
As recently as the beginning of January, Democrats favoured Hillary over Obama 45% to 22%. Everyone assumed she would coast to victory. Suddenly, Obama's "change" message caught fire! In three weeks, Obama closed the gap and took the lead.
Assuming she would clinch the nomination on Super Tuesday (February 5) when 22 states held primaries and caucuses, Hillary spent heavily, even loaning her campaign $5 million. Results that night were a wash.
Devoid of a strategy beyond February 5, cash-strapped Clinton lost eleven contests in a row to Obama in the remainder of February, giving Obama an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates.
Hillary had two choices: concede or bloody Obama to such an extent that the super delegates are convinced Obama is unelectable. She adopted the Bloody Mary option.
That was the genesis of the "kitchen sink strategy," and now the "Tonya Harding Option." Connecting with the working class whites, Hillary won Ohio convincingly on March 4, but won only nine more pledged delegates than Obama.
In Texas, where she declared Obama unfit to be the commander-in-chief through the "3 A.M." ad, she won the popular vote, but Obama won four more pledged delegates overall because of the Texas caucus. Every month since January, Obama has increased his lead among pledged delegates.
When the nation's highest elected Latino official, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who held several cabinet positions in the Clinton administration, endorsed Obama last week, Clinton surrogate and strategist James Carville called him a "Judas," who betrayed Jesus! This was a not-so-subtle threat to those super delegates who were thinking of following Richardson's lead, that the Clintons' retaliation would be brutal!
As Obama endured severe criticism for two weeks for his association with controversial pastor Rev. Wright, Hillary kept quiet. As the controversy was simmering down, Hillary ignited it again on March 25, saying "he (Rev. Wright) would not have been my pastor," and that she would have left the church. This was a perfect ploy to deflect attention from her own "lying."
To embellish her foreign policy credentials, Hillary had repeatedly claimed, as late as March 17, that during her 1996 visit to Tuzla, Bosnia she had ducked and scrambled to avoid sniper fire. Not true! CBS television showed footage of that visit. There was no sniper fire. Hillary, along with Chelsea, greeted school children and soldiers on the tarmac, mingled and chatted with them, smiling and being photographed interminably. Confronted with the evidence, Hillary said simply, "I mis-remembered" the episode!
According to the best estimates, Obama leads Clinton by 167 among pledged (elected) delegates (1414 to 1247), Clinton leads by 35 among super (unelected) delegates (250 to 215), giving Obama an overall lead of 132 (1629 to 1497). Hillary leads among the super delegates because, as the "inevitable" nominee, the establishment of the Democratic Party made commitments to her early.
A total of 566 pledged delegates are at stake in the ten remaining contests; 331 super delegates are yet to make up their minds. A total of 2025 delegates are needed to win the nomination.
Obama has won twice as many contests as Hillary, and leads her by over 700,000 popular votes. The only way Hillary can overtake Obama in pledged delegates is to win 65% on the remaining delegates -- an impossibility. Therefore, the only route left for her is to damage Obama to such an extent that he is deemed unelectable by the super delegates, who would then, presumably, flock to her.
Unfortunately for Hillary, Barack seemed to have weathered his spiritual flight with Wright Brother well. The latest polls show Americans viewing Hillary negatively (37% positive to 48% negative) and Obama positively (49% positive to 32% negative). In head- to-head contests with John McCain, Obama wins and Hillary loses!
The super delegates watch these polls closely. Not surprisingly, in a pun on Obama's bestseller, "The Audacity of Hope," Hillary's campaign has been dubbed, "The Audacity of Hopelessness."
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