Dresden

From the beginning Barack Obama has been running for President of the United States of America while his rivals were seeking the nomination of their respective parties. Such a sweeping approach provided Senator Obama with more bricks and mortar than his competitors from which to build a redoubt to fend off attack.

According to Richard Neustadt, a president's effectiveness comes from their capacity to create choices and enlarge their reservoir of influence. These abilities are derived from personal reputation among shareholders of power in Washington and public prestige enjoyed abroad within various constituencies, foreign and domestic.

Rising from the battlegrounds of February, Mr. Obama established an insurmountable lead. During a moment of candor, Bill Clinton acknowledged that his wife would have to respond with similarly overwhelming victories in both Texas and Ohio on March 4 in order to be viable.

After failing to do this, Mrs. Clinton has been waging a campaign to create the illusion of resurgence and circumvent her way to the nomination. She was all but pleading for the Democratic Party elites to do for her what the Supreme Court did for George W. Bush against Al Gore in 2000: ratify an outcome not supported by the numbers on the scoreboard.

The Republican Party egged on this drama and the mainstream media had an incentive in reinforcing this intrigue. It was a rare delicacy for 24 hour news beasts. But as time drew on, it became apparent that the nuclear fallout from the internecine struggle engaged by Hillary Clinton would lay the party apparatus to waste.

Indeed, Mrs. Clinton went so far as to practically endorse the Republican challenger over the potential and presumptive Democratic nominee, Mr. Obama. It seems that party leaders have finally said enough. Gary Hart emphatically denounced the maneuver by Senator Clinton as an unwise and inappropriate act which signals betrayal. And Tom Brokaw reported rumblings about a swing in uncommitted superdelegates to the Obama camp that essentially confirms the nomination for Senator Obama. With proportional allocation of delegates, even with victories in Florida and Michigan it is unlikely that Clinton could overtake Obama. The party elders surely recognize this and also are alert to the benefits awarded to Senator John McCain by such internal conflict among Democrats.

In their futile and desperate attempt at a pyrrhic victory, Hillary has amputated herself from a newly emergent force in the Democratic Party and Bill Clinton has resigned his legacy to the dustbin of history. The only way to salvage what little capital they have remaining, the Clintons must announce their complete and total surrender to Mr. Obama before the Pennsylvania primary on April 22. Such capitulation must be accompanied by an enthusiastic and unequivocal embrace of Barack Obama as the new dauphin. The Clintons must exit gracefully of their own will or risk forceful ejection. Bill and Hillary must now ask themselves a question.

Departures and Arrivals

"You won't see me as a vice presidential candidate, you know, I'm running for president."
-Senator Barack Obama

From CNN:

A Democratic victory in a special election to fill the congressional seat held by former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert is a sign of things to come, according to the party. Barack Obama’s campaign says it’s a demonstration of his electoral coattails.

First-time candidate Bill Foster, a physicist, beat Republican Jim Oberweis, a money manager and head of a giant dairy. The national Republican Party spent millions on his behalf.

Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who leads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Foster’s victory demonstrated to Republican candidates that “Senator (John) McCain, who campaigned with the Republican nominee, cannot save them from defeat this November against strong Democratic challengers, even in districts that voted overwhelmingly for President Bush.”

The race had shaped up to be a presidential face-off of sorts, with McCain stumping for Oberweis and Obama backing Foster.

“You may think you have to wait until November to vote for change. But here in Illinois, you can start Saturday March 8th. That’s when you can vote to send Bill Foster to Congress,” said Obama in a campaign ad for the underdog candidate.

In a statement released by his campaign Saturday night, Obama said "The people of Illinois have sent an unmistakable message that they're tired of business-as-usual in Washington."

Republicans dispute the characterization. “The one thing 2008 has shown is that one election in one state does not prove a trend,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Karen Hanretty said Saturday. “…The one message coming out of 2008 so far is that what happens today is not a bellwether of what happens this fall.

The Most Dangerous Woman in America

Hillary Rodham Clinton has singlehandedly disabled the Democratic Party for the next eight years. Her husband did a similar thing when he cost the Dems the Congress and later cost Al Gore what should have been a clear path to the White House. It took about ten years for Democrats to recover from the insult.

The Gettysburg moment of February 5 decided the outcome of the primary. Hillary could have continued running an issue oriented campaign. However, she not only attacked Barack on the issues but also his very nature. She cast doubts about Obama's religious affiliation, insulted his supporters as deluded fanatics, and in the ultimate act of betrayal, explicitly stated that John McCain is more qualified to be POTUS than Obama. In essence, HRC became the woman who agreed to Solomon's solution of cutting a baby in half to settle a custody suit. With such open contempt his supporters could never adopt her. It was almost as if she didn't think that she would need us in the fall campaign or actually believed her commercial depiction of the electorate as babies readily guided into bed.


The Dems can't recover. Barack was a resplendent JFK. The personal and racial attacks were sure to come in a general campaign. But to have a white female fellow Democrat slinging calumnies has prepared the nation for when the heavyweight, no condom wearing, straight ATM Republicans get into the mix. Without such preconditioning by HRC the nation would have probably been repulsed at such a spectacle, the way it was when Bill Clinton first dropped his turds in South Carolina.

As it stands, Barack is trying to win a bike with a flat tire. By not putting Hillary Rodham Clinton in check, the party elders as well as the Black superdelegates who held steadfast even as HRC's venom reached toxic levels fractured their party. HRC can't get the nomination without mass defection and Barack is a once beautiful suit that's emerged from the dryer after being laundered.

Needless to say, HRC is finished politically. She can never be a national figure. What she did can't be undone in the next election cycle four years from now and certainly not within the current one. To openly proclaim the legitimacy of the Republican challenger over Obama has sealed her fate and maybe Barack's.

HRC can't be the nominee because of the immediate exodus which would ensue. She can't be a VP because of the nature of her attacks. She can't really throw her support behind Barack without openly marinating in hypocrisy. The scorn she has heaped on Obama and his supporters is irrational to a degree approaching Faye Dunaway's portrayal of Joan Crawford.

Barack would need to craft a political version of Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods in order to win this thing. Chuck Hagel as VP would be a prerequisite for Obama to avoid becoming another Michael Dukakis. Such a bold maneuver could not only help retool and recalibrate the campaign, but revitalize the jes grew spirit which characterized Obama's ascent.

Hillary has effectively ended her chance at higher office. Yet I'm at a loss to understand why the leadership allowed her to wreck the party? Al Gore and John Edwards should have thrown their weight behind Obama after February especially when McCain was the presumptive nominee. Howard Dean should have been more vehement about strict adherence to the rules regarding Florida and Michigan. The leadership should have spoken to big money donors and told them to refrain from putting more money into the Clinton campaign, and given off the record comments to superannuated political reporters like Bob Woodward about the futility of a Clinton resurgence. It was as if the owners of the manor just stood by idly as a mad woman defecated in the kitchen without thinking that eventually they would have to eat there. The Dems are dysfunctional.

Teamwork, Chicago Style

For Barack

In keeping with my regional bias I was going to post Mobb Deep's Survival of the Fittest to evoke how I felt after the Ohio primary.




But after perusing Afronerd I must agree that Eminem more accurately captures my mood .

King David

"And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands."
- 1 Samuel 17:47

In the church revival atmosphere that surrounds Barack Obama, some have confused his King David for a prophet. Like David, Obama comes from humble origins and has a lyrical sensibility. But Barack, as the insightful A. Charles has observed recently, has also shown the determination and initiative which characterizes the successful insurgent. In 1 Samuel 17, we see the hero audaciously approach Goliath, a foe possessing technologically superior arms and a not unsubstantiated belief in his own prowess, with a simple sling and stones. David's youth and lack of combat experience is used against him by Israelite and Philistine alike.

However, David did have the experience of taking down a lion and a bear. While consensus may have considered it irrelevant to the campaign at hand, it did provide David with an immeasurable confidence in himself. Acquiring political maturity in Chicago has endowed Obama with similar fortitude.

The greatest generals like Hannibal, Grant, MacArthur, and Giap always take the bold and creative approach. Their triumphs are derived from a combination of personal bravado and the enemy's overly abundant aggression and narcissistic underestimation of their rival's capacity to endure and retaliate.

Hillary Clinton and John McCain have both expressed contempt for Obama's expertise that mirrors Goliath's derision of David. Mrs. Clinton, particularly, has defined herself as a watchful protective mother and the electorate as sleeping children. She will protect and defend us. We, the citizens, can go back to sleep. Mommy Dearest will tuck us into bed and put Barack Obama in his place.

Make no mistake. In this effort Senator Obama is taking on two foes with much greater resources. Bill and Hillary Clinton combine seductive charm, ruthless guile, and naked desire for power that is matched only by the Kennedy and Bush legacies. And Senator Clinton has issued a call which fails to acknowledge her challenger's proficiency at Muay Thai.


The Obama forces have promised to respond appropriately. Just like the shepherd David, Barack is an intimate of the wielders of power. He knows very well the landscape that he seeks to negotiate. He is no prophet willing to engage an opponent without tools and just God's word to back him up. Rather he is the principled statesman who chooses implements that he can apply skillfully to his advantage. Expect Hillary to be tutored by Barack in the intelligent use of force.

Pimps Up, Hos Down

"...the rest of them knew that the real power lay in letting the President come to them; the President could take care of rail strikes, minimum wages and farm prices, and they would take care of national security....a special elite, a certain breed of men whose continuity is among themselves. They are linked to one another rather than to the country; in their minds they become responsible for the country but not responsive to it."
-The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam

In the three-card Monte that is popular journalism, it is the underreported story that is of major significance. Just as the current struggle comes into focus, the nation is distracted by the Democratic primary campaign. Last Friday afternoon the Defense Department announced that Air Force awarded a $35 billion contract to Northrup Grumman. In addition to the timing of this release the Air Force minimized mention of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), Northrup's senior partner in the venture.

While the current engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, to say nothing of Israel's incursion into Lebanon last summer, have shown the limits of air power, the USAF has been asking for more money to ready itself for the challenges of the new century.

Across the board, Democrats and Republicans have declared righteous indignation. But the truth is that this deal was a long time in the making. After a first term marked by bold and provocative unilateral maneuvers, the G.W. Bush administration has worked aggressively to restore the mutual cooperation which has characterized the global North since World War II. An Obama presidency would complete the restoration.

For all his eloquence and charming embrace, Barack Obama has not rejected the Truman legacy of militarism. His list of advisors is a panoply of entrenched establishment figureheads. He does, in all fairness, have Samantha Power, the eminent human rights scholar, on his team. He talks about changing the mindset that led to the Iraq War.

Despite the protests of lawmakers and the good intentions of candidates, a consensus has been reached by shareholders of global power that countries are to be managed like businesses. Even the obstinate French have come around. Now the only ones left to convince are the American people.