May has been a hard month for Hillary Clinton and her supporters. We entered the month with cries of "The Math" from the Obama campaign. The North Carolina and Indiana primaries on the 6th did not do nearly enough to dent Obama's delegate advantage. After she made up significant ground in West Virginia and Kentucky on the 20th the Obama campaign cranked up its sleaze and smear campaign. They soon realized that blaming their losses on Appalachian racism was wrong and self destructive, so they turned to their most despicable tactic and promoted a story so deranged that even the NY Post backed off from it. Exploiting the death of RFK was the lowest point to date for a campaign with a history of character assassination and division. That very weekend an Obama friend of 20 years gave a divisive and misogynist sermon at Trinity UCC, Obama's now former church, putting Obama on the defensive and yielding another misstep. I never thought I would see a Republican reject attacks on Hillary Clinton with more grace than the Democrats, but here was John McCain saying "I respect her and I think that kind of language and that kind of treatment of Senator Clinton is unwarranted, uncalled for and disgraceful," while all Obama could think about was himself "That is why I am deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn't reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause" Other Democratic party leaders couldn't even manage that "more in sorrow than in anger" response to hateful rhetoric aimed at a Democrat. But the last blow was to come from the party hacks.
Everyone but the most deluded Obama supporters knew that the DNC's Rules and Bylaws committee would reverse itself and give Florida and Michigan meaningful representation at the convention, that was clear from the day of their decision last year. The only question was what compromise they would negotiate. In the end the Obama campaign wrung enough delegates from the committee to put the nomination out of Clinton's reach, but only by taking Clinton's Michigan delegates. In doing so Obama (He had the votes) and the RBC abandoned any notion of rules and gave a final insult to Clinton, her supporters and democracy.
Once again voters rallied to Clinton's side. She finished off the month with a big win in Puerto Rico.
One would think that politically, from Obama's point of view, none of this makes any sense. Obama needs Clinton's supporters to be even competitive in the general election, why would he be kicking Hillary while she was down if he had the nomination in the bag? That drives them to McCain. Obama has two problems, both of which do serious damage to his prospects in the general election. One is that he did not have the nomination in the bag, and he damaged himself by aggressively overcompensating for his real weaknesses. His second problem is that he is disconnected from and tone deaf to the concerns of large segments of the Democratic electorate. He and his supporters have been consistently blind to the offense their attacks have given to women, Hispanics and working class people, while being hypersensitive to any offense to him.
It is hard to imagine, after the RBC meeting, that Hillary Clinton will win the nomination. No doubt she will do what she has always promised to do: work her heart out for the nominee. But she cannot save Obama from himself. So far he shows no sign of even understanding how deeply his actions have offended voters, and no sign of desiring to repair the damage. Maybe in his big speech tomorrow he will skip the soaring but empty rhetoric, finally acknowledge his own role in the divisiveness of this primary and begin to talk to the people he has pushed away.
Updated to link to Donna Brazile's statement that Obama had the votes to nullify Michigan if he so chose.
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