Hillary Clinton has repeatedly sworn that if Obama is the Democratic presidential nominee she'll back him to the hilt. In between his recent blast at an unspecified "they" for conspiring to deny Hillary the nomination, hubby Bill also swears that she's a team player and will pitch in and do whatever it takes to get a Democrat in the White House. They almost certainly will be called to back that up. Obama will probably win outright or split primary wins with Clinton in Montana, South Dakota and Puerto Rico, will bag the votes of 50 or more of the roughly 200 or so still fence sitting super delegates, and the DNC rules committee is likely to shoot down Clinton's bid to grab Florida's delegates at its May 31 meeting. The game then is officially up for Hillary.
Top Democrats will demand that Clinton raise both Obama's hands before the cameras and the world at the Democratic convention and lead the rapturous delegates in cheers and chants for Obama. They'll require that a smiling glad handing Clinton hit the campaign trail in tow with Obama, scurry around to some of the Clinton friendly and Obama unfriendly spots in the must win swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, rev up non-college educated white rural and blue collar workers, and Hispanics to punch the ticket for Obama. They'll require her to make carefully scripted and orchestrated TV spots blasting McCain and imploring America to get behind Obama.
-snip-
The even more brutal truth is that a Hillary pitch to these doubting and even hostile Democrats may not mean much for two plain reasons. Many did not vote for her because they liked her and her policies, they simply didn't like Obama, and she was the only other Democrat on the ticket. And the reasons they don't like him-- racial fear, distrust, uncertainty, his inexperience, patriotism questions, and a too liberal voting record--aren't going to magically vanish just because Clinton tells them they should.
There's one more problem. And that's since Clinton, as Bill noted when he complained that she was so disrespectfully treated by the media, top Democrats, and many Democrats whose dislike fast turned to loathe for her, and was reviled as a spoiler and a distraction, why should they suddenly clamor to have her on the trail touting Obama?
When Clinton battled Obama for the nomination she posed problems for the Democrats. If she battles for the presidency for Obama, she'll still pose the same problems. Clinton can't win.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/will-clinton-really-back_b_103704.html
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