Any astute political junkie should immediately recognize that Al
Gore
’s endorsement of Howard Dean is an attempted check-mate in a
political chess game.
Any astute political junkie should immediately recognize that Al Gore’s endorsement of Howard Dean is an attempted check-mate in a political chess game.
The players are the Clinton vs. the anti-Clinton Democrats. The Clintons want to keep control of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to ensure Hillary’s best chances of running for President in 2008. The anti-Clintons want to take the party leadership away from them and lead the Democrats even farther left. Earlier this month, Al Gore endorsed Howard Dean and intentionally placed himself right in the middle of the battle. For Al Gore, it’s payback time … but why?
After Monica-Gate, Clinton and Gore despised each other. Al Gore blames Bill Clinton’s indiscretions and Hillary’s Senate campaign for sucking all of the air out of his presidential campaign. And whether it was done for political or personal reasons, last year Hillary pointedly refused to endorse Al Gore for another presidential bid. Behind the scenes, she was secretly lobbying the major Democratic donors to shun his candidacy. Gore succumbed, and dropped out of the race one month later.
Howard Dean also does not like the Clintons; and he wants to take away their control of the DNC. Bill and Hillary Clinton control the DNC and any aspiring presidential candidates through their hand-picked Chairman Terry McAuliffe. That is, they control any aspiring candidate except Howard Dean.
Hillary wants to run for president; but she’s got a problem. The Democrats have a long history of sending their failed presidential candidates into political asylum. Therefore, Hillary can’t risk running in 2004 if Bush is going to win anyway. Instead, Hillary needs Bush to win, but not win too big. If he wins too big, then the damage from that landslide makes it all but impossible for Hillary to win in 2008 because it almost certainly would result in more Republicans being elected to the Senate – where Hillary serves.
Hillary’s needs the Senate to stay in a near 50/50 partisan split. This allows the Democrats to use the filibuster rules to their advantage by continuing to block Bush’s agenda. After five more years of gridlock, Hillary can then run as the great unifier to save the country from the Republican ineptitude. To the Clintons, Howard Dean represents the biggest threat to Hillary’s scheme.
Howard Dean is the current Democratic Presidential front runner. He’s made no secret that he’ll fire Terry McAuliffe and remove the Clintons from the DNC hierarchy. Dean is running on an “anti military; pro tax hike; and expanded social entitlements” platform. The Clintons fear him for good reason. The two largest landslides in presidential history occurred when George McGovern ran on an anti-military platform, and Michael Dukakis promised to raise taxes.
Dean is McGovern and Dukakis combined … and more. The Clintons fear Dean will take the party so far left that he’ll take the Democrats out of presidential contention for many elections to come. This ruins Hillary’s chances of running in 2008. Therefore, they must stop him.
Enter Wesley Clark.
To stop Dean, the Clintons decided to put forth Wesley Clark as a candidate. They convened a meeting at their home with top DNC officials where they gathered all of their fundraisers, campaign managers, and assigned them to work with Wesley Clark as a presidential candidate.
Clark is the perfect Clinton saboteur candidate. He tried running as a Republican only a few months before entering the race as a Democrat – giving speeches endorsing Bush and the war. Now he claims to despise Bush, disavows his prior views and stands against the war. He previously served as NATO Commander under Clinton before being fired for ethics violations. His former colleagues and commanding officers have said they don’t trust him and would never vote for him.
All in all, this makes Clark the perfect Democratic candidate in 2004: as a military figure, he’ll be very popular to boost the anti-military Democratic image, but he’s completely unelectable and that’s why the Clintons like him. His purpose isn’t to get elected, and may not even be to get nominated. His purpose is to weaken Howard Dean. As a bonus, if he were actually nominated, then Hillary could be his running mate with no political risk of being sent into political asylum.
Enter Al Gore.
In a symbolic gesture that his Howard Dean endorsement was a political payback to the Clintons, Al Gore endorsed Howard Dean in Harlem, N.Y. – right down the street from Bill Clinton’s office. Al Gore’s endorsement may give Howard Dean the boost he needs to wrap up the entire nomination before the first primary occurs. It’s the perfect payback to the Clintons.
To stave off the Dean juggernaut and regain the spotlight, Hillary needs to tip her presidential hand. If she ever planned to run as president or vice president in 2004, she must now come out of the closet. Lo and behold! Wesley Clark – the Clinton’s manikin candidate – has announced that he would like Hillary Clinton to be his running mate. And now, somebody is sending up trial balloons to see if Hillary could be Howard Dean’s running mate. My prediction is already coming true.
Whatever happens between now and the Democratic Party convention, it will be very entertaining; maybe as entertaining as the recall of Gov. Gray Davis. The show is guaranteed to be as entertaining as it is cutthroat. The very heart and soul of the Democratic Party is at stake. Will the party stay semi-moderate under the Clinton’s helm, or will the Bolshevik division of the Democratic Party under Howard “Nikita” Dean take them so far to the left that it ruins Hillary’s presidential aspirations for the rest of her life? Only time will tell.
If there is anything I’ve learned about the Clinton’s: don’t ever count them out. I would have never thought that America would elect a philandering, perjuring, witness tampering, justice obstructing, sexual predator as its president once – let alone twice. So I will never count the Clinton’s check-mated until they’re long gone from the political scene.
Robert Collins is an engineering manager in Silicon Valley. He has been involved in Morgan Hill planning, and served on the Morgan Hill General Plan Task Force. Robert may be reached at mh*****@***********ns.org The Board of Contributors is comprised of local writers whose views appear on Tuesdays and Friday.
