Reason number 999 why Obama was wise not to run an overtly progressive campaign.
Among some conservative Democratic politicians last night, there was an almost palpable sense of relief that Obama showed he could win over their constituents — the blue-collar, rural whites who, they feared could bleed over to the GOP in the fall.
“It’s not Senator Clinton’s fault, but the baggage she carries is the divisiveness of the 1990s,” [Rep. Chet] Edwards [D-TX] said. “People are wanting to turn the chapter to the future rather than going back to the last chapter. It’s not fair but that is the reality.”
Actually, a more populist campaign might have attracted rural white blue collar voters, but it wouldn’t have won the support of the press, much of the party elite, or the Blue Dog Democrats that represent rural white districts. John Edwards learned this first hand. How much less effective would Edwards’ strategy have been if Obama had attempted it?
In all the post-mortems I’ve read today, no one anywhere has expressed any ideological discomfort with the prospect of an Obama presidency. That’s the genius of Obama’s campaign so far. He has managed to inspire the masses without making the suits nervous. And that is no small trick. In fact, I have never seen it done before. But it is precisely his ability to make everyone feel comfortable that is fatal to any Clinton attempt to rally the Establishment to save her candidacy at a brokered convention. The Establishment has no compelling reason to save Clinton because they are perfectly content to live with a President Obama.
And, while many see this situation as evidence that Obama will govern exactly to the Establishment’s liking, you should look at the current lay of the land and ask yourself: could he have succeeded any other way? Even now, in the face of one bruising and humiliating defeat after another, the Clintons are not shying away from the strongest of strong-arm tactics…a convention fight that they’ll enter with less pledged delegates, less overall votes, and less states won. If the Establishment had any compelling reason to reject Obama, the Clintons might still prevail. But Obama has stubbornly refused to provide them with any reasons.
The best evidence for his qualification for the office is his campaign itself, which doesn’t leak, uses its money and resources wisely, and wins, wins, wins…all things Team Clinton cannot claim.
If race was originally a concern, Obama’s crushing victories in the country’s whitest states and his ability to carry white men in places like Virginia have laid that concern to rest.
Obama carried 89% of Virginia voters 17-24. He is driving so many young people to the polls that no state is safe for Republicans in the fall. Obama is promising a Reagan-like blowout…a forty-state blowout. And it isn’t making anyone by partisan Republicans nervous.
That, more than anything else, shows the genius of Obama’s campaign, and why Clinton should start looking for an opportune time to drop out of the race.