Monday, April 21, 2008

Donna Brazile Slams the Clinton Campaign

Donna Brazil was Al Gore's campaign manager in 2000. She is also a prominent activist in the Democratic Party. Someone like Brazile is dedicated to her party and is sick and tired of the Clinton antics:

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton unveiled new negative television ads and attacked each other personally from the stump this weekend ahead of Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary, stoking more worries among Democrats that the party's eventual nominee will head into the general election badly damaged.

The rising vitriol is prompting more Democrats to demand that party leaders do something to end the battle. But no single leader or clique exists within the fractious party to end the fight, and those with influence insist voters must have their say.

Nevertheless, some party leaders are quietly planning to try to end the clash, said people familiar with the matter. After the primaries end in June, these influential Democrats -- led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- plan to push the last uncommitted party leaders to endorse a candidate, in hopes of preventing a fight at the August presidential convention, party insiders say.

These "superdelegates" -- governors, members of Congress and others who can vote for any candidate at the convention -- would likely tip the balance to Sen. Obama, who holds a sizable and likely insurmountable delegate lead. Sen. Clinton is hoping that a win in Pennsylvania, where she is favored, would lift her campaign and give party officials pause about Sen. Obama as the nominee.

[...]Despite widespread expectations that he won't win in Pennsylvania, Sen. Obama has continued to draw a steady stream of endorsements. Friday, former Sens. Sam Nunn and David Boren, both national-security experts, signed on as advisers. They aren't superdelegates, but both men remain influential with fellow southern conservatives who are. Mr. Boren's son, Oklahoma Rep. Dan Boren, is an uncommitted superdelegate.
[Hillary Clinton]

Sen. Clinton's enlistment of two Ohio superdelegates late last week was an exception to a two-month trend of the local and state party leaders falling in behind Sen. Obama. Other party leaders will likely come off the fence before May primaries in Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon.

[...]The party leaders' aim: To thwart the Clinton campaign's vow to fight all summer long to a final, nationally televised round at the Denver convention, so the party can get on with the battle against the likely Republican candidate, Arizona Sen. John McCain. Convention fights in past decades -- notably in 1968, 1972 and 1980 -- left deep divisions that contributed to the nominees' losses and hurt lesser candidates on the ballots.

[...]With Democrats protective of the House and Senate majorities just won in 2006, "Do you think for one minute that Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid will allow this fight to go on and on and on?" says Donna Brazile, an uncommitted superdelegate as an official of the Democratic National Committee, and manager of the 2000 Gore campaign. "There's a group around [Sen. Clinton] that really wants to take the fight to the convention. They don't care about the party. It scares me, and that's what scares a lot of superdelegates."

Clinton supporters vehemently defend their right to fight to the convention if necessary, and deny it would hurt the party.

Ms. Brazile says that starting the morning of June 4, "we'll all talk to each other. I know I'll reach out to some key people, including my ex-boss" -- former Vice President Al Gore, another superdelegate who remains uncommitted.

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