Coming Together

Republicans were prepared for whoever Senator Obama’s VP pick would be, with videos featuring Senators Clinton and Biden describing the Democratic candidate as unprepared to be president. There’s even a spot with Biden  saying he’d be honored to run with or against John McCain - - must have been back when McCain still had principles and wasn’t trying to milk his war experience and court the religious right.

And there’s Hillary claiming earnestly that the Obama campaign had grown “increasingly negative.” It remains a source of amazement that Clinton supporters decry what they say were gender-biased attacks on her. Those charges have an odd ring to them given that, did anyone notice, she was running against a person of color she kept saying was “unelectable” - - comments many took as an attempt to exploit the reticence of white, working class voters to support a black candidate.

And wasn’t it a Clinton tactic to portray Obama as an elitist who associated with nefarious characters while Hillary tossed down shots and beer with the locals? Democratic strategists worried that Hillary’s attacks would show up in Republican ads were Obama the candidate, and they were right. There was nothing similar coming from the Obama campaign; Hillary’s negatives had long since been catalogued and dissected.

On Fox, a gleeful Sean Hannity noted that Biden had voted to give President Bush the war powers he requested. Didn’t that insulate McCain from criticism for doing the same thing, he asked? And partisans from every corner of the right are working to stir the pot of disaffected Hillary supporters, saying for instance, that it was a slap in the face for Obama not to have chosen her as his running mate - - a tactic reminiscent of Rush Limbaugh exhorting his Republican listeners to cross over and vote for Hillary to keep her candidacy in play and the primary season in turmoil.

But whatever happened in the past or how the right tries to spin it, Democrats need to come together and stop fiddling and burning bridges that could lead to the White House. As for spot commercials there must be some Romney clips or a display of those color-coded alerts Tom Ridge used to post before elections, should one of the two become the VP nominee. And replays of McCain’s “economic guru”, Phil Gramm, describing struggling Americans as a “nation of whiners” could be especially compelling as an indication of what McCain’s devotion to “market forces” really portends.

In the end though Obama must clarify his policies and not allow McCain to continually misrepresent them. He should be asking McCain if he intends to reinstate the draft and inform voters about the enormous debt service we are paying to fund the war while Iraq sits on a huge surplus. And he should point out that the corporate tax McCain wants to lower is rarely paid by companies who find loopholes and other means of tax avoidance.

And he shouldn’t be afraid to question whether government should make drilling for a distant and limited supply of oil its top priority or invest in new greener technologies that would create near-term employment opportunities and a long-term energy-independence dividend. There is much that separates and defines the two candidates. But Obama needs to be more specific about what his intentions are.

Meanwhile, McCain trolls for disgruntled Hillary voters. But surely Hillary supporters who would vote for McCain couldn’t have had good reasons for backing her. It is distressing that the first serious woman candidate for president has a cadre of followers who do not represent the values and goals of their candidate. Rather, their intransigence is a sign of political naïveté that serves to undermine the great strides and accomplishments the feminist movement has made and to devalue the contributions of women, Hillary included, who have already been elected to leadership positions.

Seeing a woman in the White House may satisfy a need for some, a way to wield power. But handing over their vote to a candidate like John McCain out of spite or disappointment is in fact a gesture of impotence, not strength. Hillary struck the right tone in her speech at the convention telling her advocates to ask themselves if their support was just about her or about their shared concerns and making clear that electing Obama president was the cause around which all Democrats should unite.

“No way, no how, no McCain” she said. Hopefully her supporters will take her message to heart and stand with her once again.