The Devil’s Down at the Crossroads

[Daveparts]

The Devil’s Down at the Crossroads
By David Glenn Cox


Last week Pennsylvania was described by the media as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Alabama in the middle. A colorful assessment, more than a worthy sound bite, it was repeated almost continuously. This week in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s expected victory in the Pennsylvania primary, the issue is framed differently, Why can’t Obama carry the White working class voter? The easy answer would be the same reason he didn’t carry the white working class voter in Alabama. Alabama votes Republican that’s why!

Obama has carried states with tiny African American populations but the media chooses to ignore that or discount it. Here in Georgia, Obama carried 40% of the vote among White men; a fact that in light of Georgia’s recent past history is nothing less than astounding! Forty years ago Black men could only vote in Georgia with great difficulty and possible threat to their lives and yet today an African American man can not only vote but run competitively for the highest office in the land.

Senator Clinton has claimed the lead in popular vote, soft-pedaling the fact that Obama wasn’t even on the ballot in Michigan. It easier win when you run unopposed, the story of cross over voting in Texas and Ohio never achieved national prominence and remained a local story. Estimates that as many as 10 % of Mrs. Clinton Texas total may have been from Republicans crossing over since their parties nominee had already been decided. Like wise in Ohio local Democratic party officials complained of running out of ballots as more voters showed up for the primary in many polling places than there where registered Democrats.

There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton is a popular candidate but is she more popular than Barack Obama? Unable to make up the difference in delegate counts the specious issue is trotted out about the popular vote. Senator Clinton knew the rules going in, the candidate with the most delegate’s wins. It was agreed to not include votes counts in Florida and Michigan yet Senator Clinton wants to change those rules as the media plays happily along.

The situation in the Democratic Party is not so unusual as you might think; candidates have stayed in a race after they can’t statistically win to push their own agenda. So what agenda is Senator Clinton pushing? Her platform is a polyglot, She’s for everything and against every thing depending on who she’s speaking with, she threatens to obliterate Iran while she talks about bringing the troops home from Iraq after she voted to send them there in the first place. Senator Clinton is one of the most polarizing figures in the last quarter century of American politics yet the media ask, Is Obama electable?

Senator Clinton began running for this office while her husband was still in the office. When she announced her intention to run for the Senate from New York immediately the parallels were drawn to Robert Kennedy and his Presidential run. No one questioned or doubted that Mrs. Clinton’s eventual goal was the White House. She has the passion and the fire to be the President and if desire alone were qualification enough then she would have my vote. To me however, it is that very passion that disqualifies her, like Robert Johnson she would sell her soul to the devil at the crossroads to win the job.

To paraphrase John Kennedy, she would pay any cost, kiss any baby, sell out any principle, kiss up to any enemy and depose any friend to win the office. Could it be that simple? Just pride and willfulness? Perhaps Mrs. Clinton sees her self as John McCain in 2000? A man who missed the boat and whose ship had sailed, after 2000 McCain could not unseat an incumbent. If Clinton fails here she is looking at 2016 and then she like McCain will find herself an elderly shell of her former self. So it is all on this roll of this dice but the question still haunts us, Is Hillary more popular than Obama?

She’s running from behind in a losing contest and yet raises more money than the presumptive Republican nominee, that’s odd isn’t? Who is so willing to throw money in what is an almost certainly a losing campaign? Rupert Murdoch has donated and NBC Universal as well. Bear Stearns is a contributor as well as many other banks and brokerage houses, traditional Republican donors all. Maybe they see it, as a dollar for Hillary is a dollar for McCain, maybe they just want to keep the race competitive to bloody the Democratic nominees?

Already, the North Carolina Republican Party has come out with attack ads to tar local Democrats by tying them to Obama with Reverend Wright’s comments. John McCain has politely asked the North Carolina Republicans not to run the ad, because he’s such nice man. But the Republicans pay him no mind because to them, it’s a two for or maybe even a three for, slamming local Democrats, Obama and helping Clinton in the up coming North Carolina primary race all at once.

The network media once voracious critics of every thing Mrs. Clinton said or did have become her fawning admirers, as MSNBC’s Joe Scarbourgh described Obama after the Pennsylvania primary. “He just doesn’t look Presidential to me, he looks down and tired after failing to connect with the voters in Pennsylvania. But Hillary is smiling she looks like she’s having fun! She enjoys the campaigning.” I guess winning is more fun than losing, especially when it’s all just partisan observations with out one bona fide fact in the bunch.

It is at this point impossible to deny that the mainstream media’s want Hillary Clinton to stay in the race, either to keep the easy journalism coming with juicy snipes and counter punching. Or a darker more sinister reason, to bloody and weaken the two Democratic candidates while McCain gets a free ride and takes every opportunity to show the voting public what a nice man he is. Far above the behavior of the Democratic fray, just a real nice man AKA Ronald Reagan. The media has made repeated assertions that perhaps Obama can’t carry the Reagan Democrats. Ignoring the real possibility that Reagan Democrats are no more! This isn’t 1980; the Reagan Democrats of that era are older and wiser today.

They’ve lost their pensions, their health care, their plants are closed and they might lose their homes before its all over. It will take more than a nice man with jocular comments to win the election this time. So why does Hillary continue, her agenda not much different than Obama’s, her pride? Why risk poisoning the well if you can’t win? The election will almost certainly be decided by the winner of the Democratic primary, the Republican’s have put up the weakest candidate since Wendall Wilkie.

McCain is the preverbal empty suit, without passion or conviction. A Congressional free booter taking his turn at the plate. He inspires no passion in his own party save the conservative wing which dislikes him, So how then do the Republican’s plan to win this election? How can they hope to rally their base to come out strongly and vote for their candidate? A candidate who is about as exciting as a glass of warm milk. The answer to that question lies with who will deal with the devil down at the crossroads.

[Prophet 451]

1. K&R

I suspect the media is deliberatly framing the race as closer than it is to allow to cover it. The closer they frame the race, the more eyeballs tune in to see the latest and the more advertising cash that can be made.