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With the hard-fought Democratic primary season finally over, the disputed elections in Florida and Michigan resolved by the party and a flood of superdelegates endorsing the front-runner, Barack Obama has finally clinched the nomination, the first for an African-American. The pivotal blow to Clinton came when the party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee voted Saturday to punish Michigan and Florida for violating Democratic party’s directives not to move their election date up. Instead of a full vote, delegates from each state will cast a half vote at the national convention. Delegate votes were apportioned in such a way that Clinton received a net increase of 24 delegates from the two states, far short of the number that would have allowed her to overcome Sen. Obama’s lead. Angry Clinton surrogates asserted that the election was hijacked. Instead of protesting the way the delegates were apportioned in the disputed primaries, Hillary Clinton should fall on her knees, bow her head, and thank God that she received as many disputed votes in the two states as she did. But Clinton refused to bow out of the race even after Sen. Obama reached the magic delegate number. Clinton supporters went into the DNC meeting in Washington demanding that the full delegations in Michigan and Florida be fully counted and that ‘surprise, surprise’ she be awarded the lion’s share of the votes. Clinton backers claimed to be most disturbed by the way Michigan apportioned the delegates. Florida apportioned delegates based on the outcome of the primary. Unlike Florida, Sen. Obama’s name wasn’t on the ballot in Michigan and officials had to come up with another solution. Using exit polls and other research, Michigan allocated 69 votes to Clinton and 59 to Sen. Obama. Clinton made the outrageous proposal that she should have gotten 73 delegates, 55 should have been left uncommitted and Sen. Obama should have received zero. The point that most pundits are missing is if there had been a legitimate contest in Michigan, Sen. Obama would have emerged with an even larger lead over Clinton. Let’s not forget that an underfunded Jesse Jackson won the state in both 1984 and 1988. It is likely that Sen. Obama would have picked up the Jackson base and more. Even without Obama on the ballot, Clinton got only 55 percent of the vote. The behavior of the Clintons during this election has been despicable. After seeing the real Billary Clinton, I would not vote for either if they were running for dog catcher. In such a contest, I would support ABC—Anybody But Clinton. Not only have they damaged the inflated Clinton political legacy, they have damaged the party and the eventual nominee. Republicans are saying Democrats are learning what they’ve known all along about the Clintons—they are liars, cheats and will do anything to win. One thing I learned while playing football in high school and college is that everyone is supposed to play by the same set of rules. If you have a fourth-and-two situation and you only gain a yard, the ball goes to the other team. Officials don’t entertain arguments about your having more “experience” than the other team or you believe that you’re in a better position than other teams to defeat the opponent. The rules are simple: if you fail to make a first down, you’re not entitled to keep the ball. And if the other team wins by only one point, they are still declared the winner. Hillary not only didn’t want to give up the ball after she came up short, she wanted to keep moving the goal line back. Every time Obama approached the goal and was in position to score the winning touchdown, she attempted to move the goal back another 20 yards. Even now, with the game over, her most ardent supporters are threatening a divisive floor fight in Denver. All of this posturing may be an attempt to force Hillary on the ticket as Obama’s vice presidential running mate, a so-called “Dream Team.” But that would be a nightmare. Obama would be better served by selecting someone with foreign policy or executive branch experience—sorry, Hillary, hosting receptions and pretending to be under attack in Bosnia don’t count—and if that person happens to be a White, male Southerner, that’s even better. After the Clintons understated the contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., minimized the political contributions of Jesse Jackson, equated hard work with White Americans and even evoked the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in a cheap attempt to win votes, it’s time for them to take their ball and go home. (George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine and the NNPA News Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. He can be reached through his Web site, www.georgecurry.com. This column was distribute by the NNPA)
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