A Message to Chairman Dean, President & Mrs. Clinton & Superdelegates

South Carolina Democratic Rep. James Clyburn warned today that if the heated Clinton-Obama contest continues on its present course it could have dire consequences for African American support of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, should she win the Democratic nomination, and on African American faith in the Democratic Party even if she does not. Source: theWashingtonPost

"I may not know a lot about what drives some voters, but I know a little bit about African American voters," he said, in an interview with The Trail. "And if they feel as if they're being used, they'll stay away. They just won't engage in the process." Source: theWashingtonPost

"African Americans are really engaged in the process and I don't think we oughta be saying anything that might discourage these people or in any way marginalize them," he continued. "I am very concerned that if we keep talking as if it doesn't matter ... that Obama gets 92 percent of the black vote ... since he only got 35 percent of the white vote, he's in trouble. Well, Hillary Clinton only got 8 percent of black vote. [That's] like saying that 92 percent, they don't matter." Source: theWashingtonPost

Rep. Clyburn went even farther in a Friday night April 25th interview with Keith Oberman warning that if the Clinton’s conduct continued they risked irreparable damage with African Americans and the Democratic Party. Source: theWashingtonPost

In January, Clyburn advised President Clinton to “chill out.”  Since that warning, the Clintons have seemed hell-bent on denying Barack Obama the Democratic nomination at any cost. Clyburn noted that President Clinton’s recent accusations that Barack Obama’s campaign played the race card in SC placed him (Clyburn) in the position of having to issue another dire warning of the damage being done to the Democrats chances in the November election.  He felt he had no choice but go public to once again speak to the Clinton’s in an effort to stop this train wreck before permanent damage is done.

On April 2, citing Democratic rules, national committee Chairman Howard Dean said that the superdelegates who are poised to select the party's presidential nominee are free to back whomever they wish at the end of the primaries, regardless of who leads in the popular vote or pledged delegates. Source: LATimes.

Chairman Dean, President and Mrs. Clinton and the superdelegates are being fore-warned.  They may be free to vote as they feel and overturn the will of the people but it would be the stupidest mistake of their political lives. Such under-handed tactics will lead to a full-fledged Democratic Party Revolt, lead by grassroots activists across the country beginning in the Commonwealth of Virginia and spreading like wildfire throughout every corner of the country.

A few things have changed since the Clinton’s last held the presidency. We democrats are no longer willing to suit up and march per the orders from party leaders and the establishment. There is a limit to our loyalty.  We no longer have to rely on the traditional media to get our message out. 

Just as Barack Obama has brought a wave of new voters into the party and harnessed the power of the Internet to build the most powerful presidential campaign in political history, activists from across America will use those same tools to correct any under-handed injustice which denies the nomination to the first real credible African American with any realistic chance of winning the nomination and becoming president.

Since Hillary Clinton’s campaign complained to the media that Barack Obama was receiving too much favorable coverage, the media seems to have swallowed a Clinton “fear pill.”  To many activists, the media has now joined forces with the Clintons in an all-out assault on Barack Obama.

Why we ask, isn’t the media, party leaders, and superdelegates raising the question of why with all the Clinton name recognition, ability to raise money, and a network or party insider support, has Senator Clinton not been able to seal the deal?  Why did Clinton fail to perform on Super Tuesday?  Why when Barack Obama leads in states won, the popular vote, pledged delegates, and money raised are they so obsessed about why Barack Obama cannot seal the deal?

Poll after poll has shown Barack Obama is the stronger candidate to take on John McCain in the November election.  Poll after poll shows Senator Clinton is viewed more unfavorably by a higher percentage now than when this campaign began.  Polls show the American people in large numbers do not trust Hillary Clinton.  Election results across the country have already shown Barack Obama is able to garner excitement and support unlike any candidate in presidential politics. National polls have consistently shown Obama is preferred by democrats over Senator Clinton. Yet…all we hear is “Why can’t Barack Obama win working class Americans.  The time is nearing for this nonsense to end!

At this stage, Senator Clinton’s argument is reduced to “I won the big states that are crucial to winning the general election.”  This argument has no merit or relation to what would happen in the general election.  It was a democratic primary.  The focus of the debates and the primary and caucuses have not been about the Republican’s mismanagement of the nation, Katrina,the price of gas, the economy, budget deficits, tax cuts for the richest of rich, the war in Iraq and a host of other issues any democrat will be running against in the general election. The arguments about the GOP’s refusal to address the looming Medicare and Social Security crisis’s have not been sufficiently addressed by either democrat in this primary as they will be addressed in the general election.

Barack Obama with all votes totaled to date, has won the popular vote and the pledged delegates contest fair and square.  He’s done so without the kind of nasty, unfair, and despicable type of negative attacks waged by the Clinton campaign and its surrogates.  He’s won both without damaging Senator Clinton’s prospects for November should she ultimately prevail in this primary.

The Clinton campaign was stunned by the margin in Virginia’s primary. Virginia is not Alabama or South Carolina which has huge African American populations.  

Obama won 64% of the vote in Virginia, about the same percentage he got from his home state of Illinois. He picked up a slim majority, 52 percent, of whites, doubling the percentage he got in neighboring Tennessee a week before and exceeding his support among white voters in any previous Southern state.  Source: theWashingtonPost

Larry Byrne, a veteran Democratic strategist from Fairfax County who was an adviser to the Clinton campaign, said they expected that about 600,000 people would vote in the Democratic primary. Instead, nearly 1 million showed up, a 130 percent increase over the turnout four years ago. Source: theWashingtonPost

Momentum helped Obama, too, after he won over the weekend in Maine, Washington, Nebraska and Louisiana. Late-deciding Virginia voters broke his way, exit polls showed, and those who already supported him turned out to vote because they thought he could win the nomination, strategists said. Source: theWashingtonPost

Obama recorded one of his top showings among white women and scored his first decisive victory among Southern white men. He lost to Clinton among white women by only six percentage points, and he beat the New York senator by 18 points among white men.
Source: theWashingtonPost

Obama beat Clinton for the first time among senior citizens. Swanee Busic, 65, of Reston voted twice for Bush but now sees herself as an independent. "I'm thinking Obama is really someone who's new, who's not so deep in politics," Busic said.
Source: theWashingtonPost

Although Latinos made up only one in 20 Virginia Democratic voters, Obama got 54 percent of those voters, neutralizing one of Clinton's core constituencies. Source: theWashingtonPost

Obama dominated Clinton in nearly every region of the state, carrying 10 of 11 congressional districts. Black voters turned out in potentially record numbers; in the heavy black 3rd District, which stretches from Richmond to Hampton Roads, about 33 percent of voters showed up for the Democratic primary, and Obama won eight out 10 of those voters. Statewide, he won 90 percent of the black vote, his best showing outside Illinois. Source: theWashingtonPost

By every reasonable metric, Obama has out-performed Senator Clinton’s campaign. While all votes from all states are not yet counted, it is clear Barack Obama to date has emphatically earned the democratic nomination. 

The damage already done to the Clinton legacy may be irreversible. While Rep. Clyburn’s warnings about irreparable damage among African Americans if the Clinton’s keep engaging in their “scorch & burn” politics through Indiana and North Carolina, this is not the only damage that will be done.  Considering the new voters brought into the party through Barack Obama’s campaign and the honorable way in which Obama has stood up to unsavory inter-party-attacks, you can bet a Democratic Party Revolt is just around the corner,  Such a revolt will not only occur among African Americans. There are hundreds of thousands if not several million “white” voters that will be anxious to lead such a revolt and as activists, we have learned to take our message to the people. And we will.

I as a white voter will not stand by and see the most credible African American presidential candidate in our nation’s history destroyed by the Clinton Campaign, the Democratic Party Chairman, party leaders, and superdelegates who should be asking themselves why over 80 superdelegates have moved over to the Obama camp since Super Tuesday while Senator Clinton has netted less than a dozen and defections are occurring almost weekly. Superdelegates need to ask why esteemed leaders like Sam Nunn, Lee Hamilton, David Boren, Bill Richardson, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Tim Kaine, Kathleen Sebelius, and Claire McCaskill (among others) are not backing Senator Clinton. They need to ponder the polarizing persona of Senator Clinton and yes, the unknowns about President Clinton’s wagging finger and the possibility of “Here we go again” if he is not able to reign in his personal skeletons. 

While talking heads and media pundits keep reflecting on the 1968 convention and the chaos that occurred, you can bet there are a group of people already readying for a Democratic Party Revolution that won’t wait until a floor fight in Denver

Superdelegates should know now that they enjoy their privileged position and power from democrats of every race, color, & creed. There will be a price to pay if Senator Clinton is able to convince superdelegates to steal this nomination from the Obama campaign and the army of volunteers that have made it the most successful campaign in history. 

Should Senator Clinton win this fair and square we will line up and march. We will battle alongside her and the Democratic Party all the way through victory in November. If she and her campaign use dirty-handed tricks and lean on superdelegates to exercise their own judgment and overturn a nomination legitimately earned by Barack Obama, activists in Virginia and across the nation are poised already to ensure the party and its leaders suffer the consequences. And yes, most of us as far as I know are white working class people but we will enlist battalions of minority support from coast to coast.

It’s not too late. Party elders would be wise to start finding a way to have that honest talk with Senator Clinton before the revolt begins. We’re willing to wait until the last contest but, not beyond and certainly not until the convention before our wrath at such an injustice is known and felt.  Reconciliation is still possible. Our sincere hope is that superdelegates will not create the conditions that leave us no choice but to revolt. We are poised on a moment’s notice to launch such a national revolt that will have severe consequences.

Michael H.
A white, working class democratic voter

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