Former Vice President Al Gore and a number of other senior Democrats plan to remain neutral for now in the presidential race in part to keep open the option to broker a peaceful resolution to what they fear could be a bitterly divided convention, party officials and aides said Friday.
Democratic Party officials said that in the past week Mr. Gore and other leading Democrats had held private talks as worry mounted that the close race between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton could be decided by a group of 795 party insiders known as superdelegates.
The signs that party elders are weighing whether and how to intervene reflects the extraordinary nature of the contest now and the concern among some Democrats that they not risk an internal battle that could harm the party in the general election.
But they also provided an early glimpse at the complex set of tradeoffs facing party leaders, from their desire to make their own influence felt to their worries about offending the candidates and particular constituencies ”” not to mention the long, sometimes troubled relationship between Mr. Gore and the Clintons.
The issues party leaders are grappling with, they said, include how to avoid the perception of a back-room deal that thwarts the will of millions of voters who have cast ballots in primaries and caucuses. That perception could cripple the eventual Democratic nominee’s chances of winning the presidency in November, they said.
The only thing that saves the Republicans during general elections is the Democrats.
The only thing that saves the Democrats during general elections is the Republicans.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
what a zen kind of idea, phil
The Dems have a problem, for sure, and probably the superdelegates’ holding off until the primaries are over is a good idea.
We know from decades of Democratic animadversions that a vote against a black candidate is necessarily racist and one against a woman is necessarily misogynist (of course, the black/woman in question must be a left-liberal Democrat…voting against black and women Republicans is purely ideological). So the question is whether more Democrats are racists or misogynists, no?
One identity politipalooza, coming up!