Conventional Wisdom part II

A few days ago I was saying that there weren’t likely to be any surprises at the Democratic National Convention. Well, that shows how much I know...lo and behold, there was a surprise today. Not a huge one, but important none the less. It didn’t effect who the candidate was going to be, or what his platform would be, or who his running mate would be, or any of the other things that are already decided, but still...

During the standard role-call ballot, where each state is called in turn to cast it’s delegates’ votes for President (a ballot that Clinton supporters had asked for, some of them hoping that their candidate would still win the vote despite both the math and her own stated wishes) it came time to call on Hillary Clinton to cast the votes for the State of New York.

That’s where she dropped her bombshell; she called for the end of the voting and for Barack Obama to be nominated "by acclamation."

This might have seemed like a slap in the face to her die-hard supporters, those who still hoped that somehow she would emerge from the selection process as the Democratic nominee. But it was not to be; by calling for the suspension of the voting process (which was largely symbolic in any case) she put a final end to her long months of hard campaigning and her supporters’ dearest hopes for the future, all at once.

After her impassioned speech last night, it should have come as no surprise. Should have, but didn’t. I believe that many "Hillary Hopefuls" hoped that despite all the odds, all the poles, all the votes, and all that said that Barack Obama would be the candidate, that the final vote would actually go to Hillary and she would, despite anything she had said previously, answer her party’s call and run for President herself.

With her actions today, she put an end to those hopes once and for all.

I expect that many of her diehard followers will never forgive her for this, just like they will never forgive Obama for winning. Like many of them never forgave Bush for "stealing" the election in 2000 (remember all that Florida nonsense?). If there’s one thing Democrats seem to be good at, it’s holding grudges.

How this will eventually bear on the fall election is anybody’s guess. I expect that it won’t have that much effect unless we get involved in another damned close election...like the last two. Some of Hillary’s supporters are already openly supporting McCain. Others are simply not voting. How much impact this has on the election is the question. We’ll just have to wait and see.

The Blues Viking

The opinions here expressed are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.