The Circular Firing Squad

The new Democratic Party slogan might as well be: “We never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

Barring some apocalyptic implosion by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton has only one chance to win the nomination: If the predominantly white super delegates decide to take it away from the first black candidate with a chance to become president.

Do-over votes in Michigan and Florida aren’t likely to happen, thanks in part to the influence of Obama supporters. Even if Clinton were to achieve a crushing 60-40 margin of victory in every remaining state, she’d still wind up behind Obama in delegates, number of election victories and number of votes.

Not that that scenario is even remotely probable, despite the damage inflicted by the endless loop of the video of Obama’s minister Jeremiah Wright over the past week. He’s still expected to win in North Carolina and Hillary has only won by 60 percent or more in
New York, Rhode Island and Arkansas so far.

Despite the lofty talk of exercising judgment (according to Clinton supporters) or following the will of the voters (from Obama backers) Democratic elected officials who make up most of the super delegates will do what politicians always do—whatever is in their own best interests. Risking widespread boycott of black voters, their most loyal supporters, would not seem to fit the agenda of self preservation.

So we come back to Hillary’s last and now apparently only hope, that between now and convention time a problem that makes Obama look unelectable crops up and as the only alternative, Clinton wins a last minute upset.

In the meantime, John McCain has the opportunity to look presidential. Napoleon once said “Never interrupt the enemy when he’s making a mistake.” McCain has been conspicuously absent in the recent furor over race in the democratic race.

Just when they thought they had an election that was a gimme, the democrats are now tripping over each other to see how they can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.