There appears to be some first-class hair-splitting as to what Hillary Clinton is planning to do tonight. Conceding he has the delegates is somehow different that conceding he is the nominee, I suppose. It sounds like she is suspending her campaign and wait around at the dance to be asked to be VP or get her health care plan on the agenda, or some such crumb of consolation.
Meanwhile, all is not as rosy for the Democrats as things appeared they would be in February when Obama was actually winning primaries and caucuses. In a conference call today, Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan and Deputy Chairman Frank Donatelli poured a little salt in the wounds.
Duncan deemed Obama the presumptive nominee “struggling to overcome deep disunity” due to concerns about Obama’s experience and judgment to be commander-in-chief. Donatelli tipped their hand a bit, suggesting that the words of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and John Edwards questioning Obama’s “judgment and credentials” in the primary race would be used by the Republicans in the general election. He pointed to Obama’s problems with working class, Catholic, and rural voters.
I asked what McCain would do to appeal to potentially dissatisfied Democrats. They pointed to a list of issues: Second Amendment rights, cultural issues including abortion and terrorism which would make McCain an appealing choice for these voters. In terms of “process” he said that McCain would stress his record of working across the “partisan divide.”
In response to other questions the GOP officials said that unlike the Democrats McCain enjoyed support of “nearly 9 out of 10” Republicans. They also made the analogy to McGovern, Kerry and Dukakis who put together a coalition of liberals and African Americans as Obama had to win the nomination but ultimately lost in the general election. And finally, they were adamant that the election be based on issues and not on race, and that the campaign would be “respectful.”
So bottom line: however Clinton phrases it, we are on to the general election where the GOP is going to look to pick off some of those 17 million Clinton voters.
