3 May 2008
Let the other guy take the fall
Posted by Joy Bischoff under: Presidential Election 2008 .
Below is a letter to a columnist at the Washington Post. I got a kick out of it since the writer has the same idea many of us do. Let the other candidate get in and take the blame for all the stuff that is hitting the fan, then clean up in 2012.
I’m for Obama — in 2012
Dear Stumped,
I am a longtime Obama supporter. My best friend is as well, but hasn’t been for as long, and I think she is losing the religion, so to speak. What I mean is, she is just about ready to throw in the towel and tell everyone who will listen to support Hillary. The reason? She figures four more years of Republican control of the presidency will result in food riots in Beverly Hills and $8.50-per-gallon gasoline — so let the Republican Dirt Machine beat the stuffing out of Clinton in the fall. Then Obama can come back against McCain in 2012 as the “I Told You So” candidate.
Whaddaya think?
– Richard Lampe
Dear Richard,
Stumped has been plenty tough on Hillary Clinton, and I have long believed that Republicans would much rather face Hillary Clinton than Barack Obama.
I have to say, though, that your friend’s logic now sounds a bit like dated wishful thinking. We may be reaching a tipping point here. Thanks to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the cultural issues he has brought to the forefront, the GOP no longer trembIes at the prospect of taking on Obama. Indeed, we may be reaching the point at which John McCain may start rooting for Obama over Clinton.
The GOP’s “dirt machine,” as you put it, may be able to prevail over either one of these two candidates in the fall — or to make a contest that should heavily favor the Democrats on the issues far closer than it should be….
…Republicans are starting to relish the idea of taking on a Democratic candidate who manages to come across as too culturally snobbish (as he came across in his remarks about those poor mid-American rubes who have to cling to their guns and God) as well as too unpatriotic and menacing to mainstream Americans who may be eager to vote for a black candidate so long as that candidate sounds like Bill Cosby (who’d presumably never claim Jeremiah “God damn America” Wright as his spiritual guide). On bad days, Obama runs the risk of being John Kerry and Al Sharpton rolled into one.
That’s range! So maybe Republicans won’t pine for Hillary in the end.
If I were an uncommitted Democratic superdelegate, I’d be very worried that my leading candidate is now looking very vulnerable. To trade him in for Clinton makes little sense — her baggage remains formidable, and her pitch that she has oodles of experience is laughable — but maybe I’d start thinking that a tie is a tie is a tie, and there is a reason parties have conventions (and superdelegates like me!). Maybe I’m thinking that, at this point, the best option is to have a convention at which neither candidate gets the necessary number of delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot. Then we thank them for their tremendous effort, devote a whole night of the proceedings to fawning over them — and then draft Al Gore on the second ballot.
There is a reason neither candidate has been able to close the deal — a recent poll showed that only 51 percent of Democrats think Obama will win the nomination, down sharply from a month ago. And it may well be that neither candidate is as fabulous as we once thought.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/stumped/
9 Comments so far...
Hank Says:
3 May 2008 at 12:32 am.
I don’t usually care much what goes on with those knuckleheads but this was pretty interesting. Maybe by November neither party will much want to win. Nah, I don’t really think that but the future could be pretty interesting. I can’t shake the feeling that the Clinton machine will find a way to win. The superdelegates might say that things have changed since the primaries and they have to take that into account. Then the blacks will have a fit and say there is no fairness in America and they will have a point.
Cavetrollhead Says:
3 May 2008 at 3:46 am.
I am not sure blacks will have a point, Hank. IMO the only reason Obama has the support he has is that he is black - and not of the Sharpton/Jackson mold. People are exited to vote for a black man but don’t want to vote for the stereotypical black leader. But I think if you ask them what they like about Obama’s specific policies you will come up dry. But they get a warm fuzzy to vote for an African - American. I think some on the right want Rice for the same reason- though she does have a better resume than Obama.
Anyway, back to the point Clinton is a better candidate for all but the far left. She at least has a little more experience.
Jesse Says:
3 May 2008 at 12:08 pm.
If forced to pick between the three I would probably go for Hillary. I know so many scary things about her that I’m not sure I could do it but I know for sure I could never be forced to vote for Obama or McCain.
Saddened Says:
3 May 2008 at 3:08 pm.
I’m so confused about all this. We have no real choices. I think I am leaning towards the idea in this blog about letting the other side take the fall.
T. Fan Says:
3 May 2008 at 5:14 pm.
Still not confused. Still determined to write in the name of a person who isn’t a crook.
Iffer Says:
4 May 2008 at 1:00 am.
I totally agree with T fan. That is what i’m doing.
avatar Says:
4 May 2008 at 6:52 pm.
It’s shaping up to be a more interesting race than usual, which I guess is at least entertaining 
I’m still disappointed with Obama for choosing someone like Wright as his “spiritual advisor”–doesn’t show much sense. But, I also somewhat sympathize with him for constantly having to attempt to distance himself from Wright’s remarks. To be honest, Wright is not that unusual; in my time I’ve heard plenty of white “hellfire” ministers rant and rave, tout conspiracy theories, and generally blame whatever has gone wrong on the sins of the country and the people. (And, as for Wright, as a young man, he did voluntarily leave university to serve his country in the military, which is more than you can say for both Obama and Clinton.)
McCain is looking better all the time. By rights, the Democrats should win this one–two-time Republican president with low ratings, unpopular war, bad economy, etc. But once again, the Democratic Party is trying hard to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, wanting to present the voters either with, on one hand, a family that wants desperately to move back into the White House and, on the other, a “black” candidate who has been trying too hard to turn himself into what he really is not–an American black. At this point, drafting Gore just might be the party’s only chance.
Hawk Says:
4 May 2008 at 9:47 pm.
Ah, finally there is another McCain supporter. There are a couple other I’ve noticed but they don’t come around much.
I feel kind of bad that Obama has had to deal with the black issue. A lot of us saw him as a regular guy until the situation with Wright came up. I listened to a couple of his speeches and he seemed pretty extreme to me. Teaching hate and racism is what I was hearing and that is never a good idea.
Cavetrollhead Says:
5 May 2008 at 12:44 am.
Well Avatar, I can respect a McCain supporter. Based on policy he is a little better than the others. I just won’t vote for him because he is bringing the republican party to the left. Where will conservatives go when that happens?
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