Hilary Rosen, a Hillary Clinton supporter, rightly identifies the broader problem with the Clinton campaign’s post-endgame maneuvering – its nature as a pure power play:
She had an opportunity to soar and unite. She had a chance to surprise her party and the nation after the day-long denials about expecting any concession and send Obama off on the campaign trail of the general election with the best possible platform. I wrote before how she had a chance for her “Al Gore moment.” And if she had done so, the whole country ALL would be talking today about how great she is and give her her due.
Instead she left her supporters empty, Obama’s angry, and party leaders trashing her. She said she was stepping back to think about her options. She is waiting to figure out how she would “use” her 18 million voters.
But not my vote. I will enthusiastically support Barack Obama’s campaign. Because I am not a bargaining chip. I am a Democrat.
The Clinton campaign has avidly sought any political advantage at its disposal, no matter what moral compromises were involved. The philosophy is, the ends (electing Clinton) justify the means (hurting the certain nominee, and the party). No doubt, Clinton justified this to herself and her close supporters by saying that Obama couldn’t win the presidency, so the party had to be saved from itself. But that’s a dubious and self-serving judgment. In other words, the ends justify the means.
But American political parties are organized around causes and issues first, individual personalities second. We’re not in Cuba or Peronist Argentina. FDR was FDR because of what he did, not who he was. I’d wager that the vast majority of those “18 million” voters were expressing support not for Hillary, but for what they think she represents: mainly, the traditional Democratic support for the little guy in tough, uncertain economic times. The notion that Obama cannot represent them is absurd. And as Rosen notes, the attempt to exploit and leverage that support in a power play that would damage Obama whether it succeeds or fails is an insult to those voters.
