Many people have expressed concern over potential repercussions in the general election of the often negative, divisive campaign run by Hillary Clinton. Some have speculated that Clinton’s seeming strategy is to ensure that, if she can’t win the 2008 nomination, her bloodied opponent will lose to the Republican and free her path for an easier run in 2012.
Polls have shown that a large number of Clinton supporters say that they won’t vote for Obama, but would rather vote for John McCain or just sit out the general election altogether. A smaller, but still significant number, of Obama supporters have said that they won’t vote for Clinton.
To all this, I call “bullshit!” My reason is simple. There is one thing capable of getting everyone, on either side of the current democratic divide, to set aside their bitterness over the primary campaign and vote against John McCain, and it has very little to do with John McCain.
The reason is this: It does not matter how much you think Barack Obama is a “shallow pretty boy,” or you think Hillary Clinton is a “divisive, manipulative liar.” It does not matter if John McCain reminds you of the grumpy grandfather to whom you never got to express your affection before he passed away. If John McCain wins the presidency in the general election, George W. Bush is going to act like he’s retiring as an undefeated champion!
Despite his record low approval ratings, and widespread disdain for his war policies, George Bush will be able to leave the White House claiming that he got a “vote of confidence” in his leadership. Any future deterioration in Iraq, or anywhere else in the Middle East, will be on McCain’s head. Any further decline in the American economy, will be on McCain’s head. George Bush will claim, rightly or not, that he left with a mandate from the American people to continue his policies.
And it doesn't matter that this is complete crap. This is the man who claimed a “mandate” after beating John Kerry by an infinitesimal fraction of a percentage point. Regardless of what anyone says about him after Bush leaves office, if McCain wins, he’ll be like members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins, drinking champagne every time another president of either party is turned away in a change of party leadership.
Think about it! The Democratic Party has not had a president elected to two terms, and then replaced by another Democrat, since Franklin Roosevelt was followed by Harry Truman in 1945. And before that, you have to go all the way back to Andrew Jackson followed by Martin Van Buren in 1837. If Bush does it, on the other hand, he will forever be able to brag of his ability to follow in the footsteps of the "great" Ronald Reagan!
No matter how much you might want a McCain victory to represent vindication for the defeat of your primary candidate, it will not be. Historically, and more importantly in George Bush’s feeble, bicycle ridin’, brush cuttin’, arrogant, chuckling, mind, it will be a personal victory!
That will be the choice in November of 2008. Use your vote in a hopelessly forgettable attempt to vindicate your losing candidate, or take advantage of your last chance to repudiate George W. Bush’s presidency, and deny him a lifetime of claiming that McCain’s victory proves he was right!
Also ignored at Daily Kos
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