It’s Not About Hillary Winning, It’s About Making The Democrats Play The Game

17 Mar, 2008 by John Hawkins

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Over at Classical Values, they’re making an argument that I’ve heard a lot lately,

In a comment to an earlier post, I opined that Hillary has a far better chance of beating McCain than Obama ever would, which is why I questioned the motives of some of the Republicans who support her.

But in this topsy-turvy state of affairs created by massive crossover voting (25% of Clinton’s voters in Mississippi were Republicans), is it logical for me to use the word “support”?

While it’s true that some Republicans — Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan, Bill Cunningham, and the like — have stated that they would vote for Hillary if she is McCain’s opponent, I don’t think it’s fair to say that most of Hillary’s Republican voters are her “supporters.”

Clearly, the Hillary Republicans are voting for a variety of reasons. The “Limbaugh camp” advocates voting for Hillary as a crossover strategy, not (at least, so they say) because they like Hillary or hate Obama, but to “help McCain.” This camp can be divided into two groups: one which believes Hillary would be easier for McCain to beat, and another which believes that causing chaos in the Democratic Party will assist the Republicans.

OK, I may be wrong about this, but I don’t think Hillary Clinton will be easier to beat. Far from it. The Clintons are a formidable pair — at their best when running against Republicans.

Very respectfully, I have to say that I think it misses the point.

The reality is that with the system that the Democrats have in place, Republican crossover voters may be able to deliver a state here or there to Hillary if they’re so inclined, but they cannot hand her the nomination.

Moreover, it’s not really about winning and losing — it’s about making the Democrats play the game until the bitter end.

Had Barack managed to knock Hillary out at the beginning of this month by winning Texas and/or Ohio, a lot of things would have started to happen, all of them bad for John McCain.

* The mainstream media would have immediately turned much of their attention to methodically tearing him apart.

* Barack could have started raising money solely for the general election and since he’s outraising McCain 4 or 5 to 1, he would have quickly built up a frighteningly huge war chest.

* The Left, which is tearing itself apart right now, would have united behind Barack.

* The Clinton campaign would have stopped taking bites out of Obama.

Instead, if all goes well, Obama and Clinton are going to knife each other in the ribs from now until late August, when the super delegates will decide the winner and the losing side will feel incredibly bitter and cheated. Meanwhile, McCain gets to raise money for the general and look presidential the whole time.

Long story short, the longer and dirtier the fight between Barack and Hillary is, the better.