2008 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION; CATHARSIS OR CHAOS?

Hillary Clinton claims her supporters need a "catharsis", a healing, to get over their loss. To hear her tell it, it would seem that her supporters are the first in history to be disappointed and to have to deal with their candidate failing to meet their expectations. In an effort to placate her supporters, Barack Obama has agreed to allow Hillary's name to appear on the nomination at the convention and to be voted on. For Barack's people, or the DNC, to believe that Hillary's supporters will be pacified by losing yet again in a very public fashion seems insane to me.

At the DNC Rules and Bylaws meeting May 31st of this year, the dems gathered to decide what to do with Michigan's and Florida's suspended delegates, the mood could not have been any worse. Despite repeated attempts by the chairwomen to keep control, Hillary's supporters shouted out comments and disrupted the proceedings throughout. Any Democrats watching must have been embarrassed by the lack of class and decorum exhibited by some of their own. To expect that the DNC convention will be any less chaotic seems naive at best. My prediction is that at least on Wednesday, the day the V.P. nomination takes place, you can expect much of the same if not worse.

How the DNC thinks this will lead to a catharsis is beyond my thinking.

The problem the Democrats have, and will continue to have, is that they have to explain to a group of very pissed off Hillary Fem-bots how it is completely fair to have one group win out over the other. Democrats sub-groups have been taught by the DNC all their political lives that any loss is the direct result of some prejudice, not the result of one group doing a better job of representing their point of view. Is it any wonder then that a women that every single pundit (including me) thought would win the democratic nomination hands down, now tries to blame misogyny and sexism as the cause of her downfall. This despite the fact that her own chief campaign strategist, Mark Penn, said in a recently released memo that Obama, "Couldn't win against Attila the Hun." It couldn't possibly be that they simply underestimated their opponent.

To make matters even worse, Obama has to try to pacify Hillary's supporters while choosing someone else as V.P.. This has as much of a chance of flying as Lead Zeppelin. While I'm sure Howard Dean will do everything in his power to keep everything under control, this convention will be sure to have Republicans grinning from ear to ear. H.C.