The Obama Base Is To Be Feared for It Is Outside of the Political Hacks

By

Dr. Sherman N. Miller

2/09/2008

When I read Senator Hillary Clinton lent her campaign $5 million to underwrite the post-Super Tuesday push and will pursue older white professional women in Northern Virginia in a Washington Post online article I concluded that does not bode well for her candidacy.  In 1996 I ran for Lt. Governor of the State of Delaware, I was its first African American candidate running for this position. The late John Rollins – a key Republican Party donator—told me whatever I do to not put my personal money into the campaign. He looked me into the eyes and said, “You will not win.”

It was difficult to accept that victory was not forthcoming, so I found myself with an internal struggle of good judgment versus ignoring fate. “Do I put my family in debt to serve my ego?” was the haunting question.  Rollins and I had become good friends during the campaign where I came to recognize his advice was always on target. I still have a very small amount of campaign money in bank the last time my former treasurer pointed it out to me. Nevertheless, my secondary goal of opening statewide office to African Americans was accomplished by my being the standard-bearer for the Republican Party.

Hence, when I look at the Hillary Clinton campaign I wonder if ego blindness is now driving her effort. It may be okay to lend oneself money in a statewide campaign, but I think it is quite another thing in a national campaign where people do not know you. Perhaps, Clinton’s loan to herself is the best gauge of how the campaign is faring after Super Tuesday for the spin doctors have to accept that money is not coming into the campaign at the rate it should. Are we seeing fissures in the Clinton campaign that may require calling in favors from Democratic Party political bosses to stop the Senator Obama presidential anointing presently underway?   

Can the Democratic political bosses accept the legitimacy of an Obama candidacy? Will the Democratic political bosses call upon their spin doctors to devise a strategy to dump Obama with grace in the public view? Shall we see Obama pushed towards being a de facto independent candidate because the Democratic Party political bosses fear that his election base in the primary elections is outside of party hacks?