Superdelegates Hiding from Wrath of Clintons

Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend at 5:02 AM on March 31, 2008.

Will these superdelegates come out of the political closet? Mike Lux at Open Left, on fearful superdelegates who want support Obama but would prefer to not publicly declare lest they piss the Clinton machine off:

There are plenty of people in the Democratic Party who think Hillary Clinton would make a better President, and/or a better general election candidate, than Barack Obama. There are also some folks who endorsed Hillary early on, and believe you have to stick with the candidate you endorse until the bitter end. There are even a few, although the number is shrinking daily, who still have not genuinely made up their mind. And some superdelegates in the remaining states want to wait for the voters in their own state to vote before they declare. But there are very few people I talk to who think Hillary can win without an utterly divisive fight that will likely tear the party apart. They know that from the perspective of what's best for the party, it's time to endorse Obama.

What those remaining undeclared folks are telling me in private, though, is that they hope the race will play itself out and Obama will emerge as the clear winner so that they don't have to piss the Clintons and their machine off.

They don't want the Clintons and McAuliffe and those donors who signed the letter to stop raising money for them. They don't want Carville and Wolfson to call them a traitor. They don't want all the behind-the-scenes trashing that they know will come.

I am encouraging my friends to come out of their political closet. If all the superdelegates and other influential friends that I have talked to who believe that the best path for the party is for Obama to win a clear victory would come out in is favor, this thing really would be over.

I think this tells you a lot about the kind of rep the Clinton team has -- no one is making it up; these folks have dealt with them before and know that the Clintonistas hold political grudges and don't mind bashing kneecaps of their "friends" when the going gets tough. We all know what happened when Bill Richardson, a long time friend and former Clinton cabinet member, decided to endorse Obama. Out trotted Carville with that "Judas" comment. The superdelegates are hoping for things to sort out so they don't have deal with the fallout.

I'm not sure at this point if there are any Clinton friends who they aren't willing to vilify or toss under the bus for political gain. The one exception seems to be high-priced Mark Penn, who they keep on the team despite his horrible, bottom-feeding political "strategy." I have to think the reason he's not been tossed over isn't loyalty, but that he must have some serious info about the Clintons that they are afraid will come out if their thug-for-hire is dissed.

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Tagged as: clinton, obama, penn, carville, mcauliffe

Pam Spaulding blogs at Pam's House Blend.