John Lewis Goes to Camp Obama

Mark Halperin apparently is either engaged in pandering or is losing his ability to chose the correct words for a given situation.

Lewis is a universally respected, historic figure who is the first prominent Democrat to go from squarely in Clinton’s camp to Obama’s. The rationale he seemed to give to the New York Times strikes at the heart of the argument that has been circulating among many wavering, undecided superdelegates, and among those now in Clinton’s camp who are feeling pressure to switch. Floodgates could open. The timing could not be worse for Clinton. And those in the party and the press who want to write off her chances would be able to make a big deal about such a move. If Lewis breaks away, take whatever you thought Clinton’s chances of winning the nomination before and divide that number by as much as two – those would be the odds of her winning now.

First of all, I balk at the phrase “universally respected”. Indeed, I reject it outright. The way this is worded can only be the result of someone engaging in something other than fact. There may be whale droppings that are higher in the food chain than Lewis, but I doubt it. Which, to put some perspective on it, would place him just above the level of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. The neighborhood I just placed Lewis, labels him clearly as just another race baiting huckster. And yes, the left likes that kind of individual, and arguably, Lewis does it well. But spare me the pretense of assuming any respect at all for the individual on my part or that of most of America.

Secondly, as regards his ability to pull people from the Clinton camp to the Obama camp, as he goes, there are those who will likely make an excuse for their desertion of Clinton involving Lewis’s name, but ultimately the reason that such people are leaving the Clinton camp is that Clinton is losing in her bid for the White House. This is pragmatism on multiple levels. Here’s two of them;

1: Nobody, in any situation, for the sake of their own image, likes to back a loser. Even Cubs fans. That’s number one.

2: Let’s be honest enough to suggest that the people who are currently leaving the Clinton camp would have left a long time ago, if they actually felt they had some place else to go.  The vindictive nature of Hillary Clinton and her long memory are legendary, particularly among Democratic Party circles. Supporting somebody other than Clinton, standing between Hillary Clinton and governmental power, when she stands any chance whatsoever of winning and thereby BEING empowered, can be fatal to one’s political career, or to one’s person as the number of bodies with mysterious deaths behind the Clintons will attest to..  Mrs. Clinton maintained her support amongst the Democrat players, until recently for that reason.; Fear. Once it started to look like she was losing, those players have nothing more to fear from retribution from an empowered Hillary Clinton.  As a direct result, Mr. Lewis is only one of several to have jumped ship recently, when the lead changed to Obama.

Suggesting that Lewis had a direct impact on that situation is little more than genuflecting to the race hucksters, a long-standing tradition amongst the American left these days.  Lewis really has nothing to do with the situation, but it serves the interest of party unity and pandering to black identity politics to say that he was empowered to bring people with him when he finally got off the stump.