LIVING POLITICS
Howard Fineman
Rocky Mountain High
Obama needs a smash hit in Denver to rally the Dems.
Sen. Barack Obama is offering himself to the nation and the world as a young Jedi of bring-us-together negotiation and diplomacy. But if he expects to have a chance to use those skills on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il and the Castro regime, he has to show he has the chops to pacify even tougher foes: Hillary and Bill Clinton.
As Obama grinds (not sprints) toward locking up the Democratic nomination, his next goal is clear: to make the Democrats' Denver convention in late August a pageant of reconciliation. It's got to be a revival meeting that blows the roof off the place.
Obama is not dealing from a position of great strength. He has been losing ground, slowly but significantly, in a number of polls, and he is going to need the Clintons.
Perhaps most galling to Obama supporters, that will mean giving the Clintons tons of air and stage time. Two mini-dramas will have to be in the script. There will have to be a raising up of Bill Clinton, in which he renounces his latest incarnation--suspender-snapping Southern mossback--and is welcomed back into the fold as the "first black president."
The second drama will be Hillary's. She will speak, of course, and it will be up to Obama let her say her piece. He will have to grin and bear it. Will she try to do what Sen. Ted Kennedy famously did to President Jimmy Carter in 1980 in New York--diminish her foe as she leaves the stage? Probably. Will Obama have a plan to deal with it? He had better. The way to do so is clear: have Kennedy himself, if he is up to it physically, follow Hillary.
As Arthur Miller said: attention must be paid.
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Member Comments
Posted By: coolkid.02 @ 05/30/2008 12:26:25 PM
Comment: Separation of church and state. I don't care what McCain's pastors say, and I don't care what Obama's has to say either. I'm a Republican, for the first time I will vote for a Democrat, Barack Obama.
Posted By: notroubleatall1963 @ 05/30/2008 12:12:14 PM
Comment: If Hillary takes the nomination after all this time, it will really be surprising. Obama's nobody's savior but he seems more likeable, rational and forward-thinking - not to mention a better strategist and campaign/finance manager - than Mrs. Clinton. I am certain he will prevail as the nominee because people in the South and across other pocketes of the US absolutely won't stand for Hillary. The media keeps "harping" about Pennsylvania and Ohio, but there are many other states that have come under Obama's camp. The people who voted for Hillary in those states are largely undereducated - why should they have so much say in who runs this country?
The Clintons are taking all the joy out of this election and making it really awful. I wish they would get out of the race pretty soon. No matter what has to happen in Denver, she is not going to win the nomination, and she would never be able to 'beat' McCain in the Fall. Not in a million years of wishing by all her milions of fans. It's sad but true. No more Clintons, no more Bushes, and no more GOP "winners" taking over our country and telling us all how to think.
Posted By: SPORTLOCK09 @ 05/30/2008 12:03:51 PM
Comment: Another racist sermon at Obamas church I see. Wonder how NEWSWEEK will spin this one in favor of their savior?