Hillary’s Nuclear Option
By Denis Campbell • May 6th, 2008 • Category: Lead Story
No we’re not talking about her threat to wipe Iran off the face of the earth if they attack Israel. This nuclear option is her plan for winning the nomination at the convention in Denver.
Simply, the plan under wraps and labelled “secret” at Hillary HQ is a page out of former advisor to her husband’s (and Democratic party pit-bull) Harold Ickes. Profiled this week in Time, this charmer has been calling uncommitted and committed super-delegates to keep them from jumping the ship. As the Time reporter sat in his office, he unleashed a string of expletives at a super-delegate on the other end of the phone (taking a moment to peer threateningly over his glasses and declare, this phone conversation is off the record, OK?!). The reporter assured him and us that the language he used to persuade would never make it past the Time editorial board.
He is Karl Rove (chief Republican strategist for George W. Bush) on turbocharged steroids. The plan is brilliantly simple. Hillary supporters control 30 seats on the Convention Rules and Bylaw Committee. They meet for the first time on 31 May, days before the last primaries. Hillary supporters will take steps to force-seat full delegations from pariah states Michigan and Florida which, she claims, would give her a 55 delegate “elected delegate” advantage and take away Barack Obama’s argument.
Florida and Michigan disobeyed party rules and were stripped of their delegates in February for holding primaries early. Hey were told not to and indeed Barack Obama and John Edwards removed their names from the ballot in Michigan a state where Hillary Clinton narrowly defeated no candidate selected. In Florida she won where all candidates agreed not to campaign and indeed on Election Day Hillary was in Florida campaigning.
So Hillary would blow up the party to win. That is the nuclear option and one that would so reek of backroom dirty tricks, it would blow the party apart and pretty much guarantee a McCain fall win and huge numbers of Democrats voting for McCain.
Please show a bit more grace than this Senator.
Denis Campbell is a journalist, author and businessman.
From a farmhouse in South Wales overlooking the Irish Sea, he and his wife run Target Point Ltd, an EU-wide strategy firm working with global businesses across a dozen industries on clarifying and executing strategy and changing their culture and focus. As a businessman living in the EU for 10-years, writing was a passionate hobby. He began blogging in 2006 with a number of pieces examining the corrupt climate of deception in the billion dollar spiritual self-help industry and re-published collected business, political and lifestyle features published across the EU since 2001. It has since grown into The Vadimus Post, from the Latin Quo Vadimus – where are we headed? (…and do we know why?), a daily e-magazine for those wanting to dig deeper, learn more together and dialogue on the key issues of the day.
Thanks for visiting and feel free to let me know your thoughts and opinions.
Email this author | All posts by Denis Campbell
