Pro-Clinton bloggers need to have a Kubler-Ross intervention with their candidate

Photo by Daniella Zalcman

If you don't know what the Kübler-Ross is all about, I am talking about Elisabeth Kübler-Ross who in her book, "Death and Dying", outlined the five stages people go through in order to deal with grief and tragic loss.

1. Denial: The initial stage: "It can't be happening."
2. Anger: "Why me? It's not fair."
3. Bargaining: "Just let me live to see my children graduate."
4. Depression: "I'm so sad, why bother with anything?"
5. Acceptance: "It's going to be OK."

The grief model is not a "5 step" program but milestones in a continuum of emotional stages. So if you have a group of people grieving the same loss, they all are not necessarily going to hit those milestones at the same time. Which is why I've been asking Clinton activist supporters the hard question : What if Barack wins?

It's an important question for a variety of reasons : Hillary Clinton refused to acknowledge Obama's win in her post-election speech. With Hawai'i and Washington, that's 11 wins that Ms. Clinton has vehemently refused to publicly congratulate Obama on any of her post-election speeches.

It may for some signify a tough "I won't concede" fighting spirit. Yet given that Obama did win by double digits in Wisconsin by eroding her base and losing the "white man vote", you have to wonder if her refusal has more to do with denial. The kind of denial that wants to create its own reality by saying, "if I don't acknowledge it, then it means it never happened".

And a denial that is fueling a lot of bargaining and anger among her followers and campaign surrogates.

First off, let's deal with the bargaining. Florida and Michigan are two states that lost their DNC delegates because they moved their primaries dates, against the rules of the DNC and against the intense behind-the-scenes negotiations that happened in order to stop the dating madness.

For weeks now we've heard of how Hillary Clinton wants to strong arm the Democratic Party into recognizing the Florida and Michigan. The Clinton campaign did not withdraw their names from the ballots like all the other candidates did, in acceptance of the parties rules. Well, by not withdrawing her name she claims she "won" these disallowed delegates and therefore, that they should be counted to her final tally.

So now it's not just rumors from surrogates. The Clinton campaign has gone out and put up a website, Delegate Hub, with the express intent to sell their case. Jake Tapper reports over at ABC News :

Among many "facts" they declare are some accurate ones, such as the idea that superdelegates, which in true nomenclatural dexterity they now term "automatic delegates" "are expected to exercise their best judgment in the interests of the nation and the Democratic Party."

But then comes this juicy non-fact:

"FACT: Florida and Michigan should count, both in the interest of fundamental fairness and honoring the spirit of the Democrats' 50-state strategy."

That's not a fact, that's an opinion.

And it's clear evidence (not that there was any mystery about it) that the Clinton campaign is trying to change the rules in the middle of the game.

Clinton's own senior adviser, Harold Ickes, voted as a member of the DNC committee to not recognize these two state delegations because they violated the rules of the primary scheduling process. Now as a Clinton campaign representative he's making the case that they should count.

The Obama people deserve to be tweaked for suggesting that the superdelegates should follow the lead of the regular delegates -- that's not what the rules dictate, either.

But there's a difference between pressuring/lobbying/strongly suggesting that superdelegates follow the will of regular delegates -- that ultimately will be decided by each individual superdelegate -- and trying to change the rules of the nominating process.

Matthew Yglesias makes an excellent point about this new development from the Clinton campaign : Instead of building websites to convince party insiders Clinton should win, they should hit the pavement and convince voters to come out for Hillary and in full force.

Juan Cole has harsher words :

The Clinton Strategy is clear. Remember the scene at the end of Platoon, when Captain Dale Dye, in the role of Captain Harris, orders in arty and bombing runs on his location when the base camp was over run ... That is their plan. Blow up the party and hope they are the ones still standing when the smoke clears.

And just the icing on the "Grieving Full Of Rage" cake, comes word that a group of Hillary Clinton "superdonors" are bandying up to create a 527 political action committee called American Leadership Project. They are intent on raising $10 million in advertising money so they can blanket Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio with anti-Obama ads.

Unbelievable.

Democrats are willing to use against one of their own a tactic that was viciously put to use by GOPers during the 2004 Presidential campaign, most infamously the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth". All to win by any means necessary. Even if the party's nominee ends up looking like damaged goods to the electorate and even if it destroys the party in the process.

So let me be blunt about this : I call on Jeralyn Meritt, Armando Lloréns (Big Tent Democrat), Taylor Marsh and other Clinton supporters in the blogosphere to tell the Clinton campaign that this type of action is harmful to the Democrats, harmful to the eventual nominee and harmful for the country's prospects of ending the madness that has been "King George".

I am not asking Clinton bloggers to tell Senator Clinton to stop campaigning now.

What I am asking is for them to take on a sincere reality check after all of Senator Clinton's losses and have their candidate answer the hard question : If you lose after Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio, will you acknowledge defeat, concede the nomination and work to get Obama elected as the next President of the United States?

If Hillary Clinton cannot answer that question, then we will know how these primaries are going to end. And it will be a dark day in hell when Democrats lose the presidency, once again, come November.

Step up to the plate bloggers, and be the independent thinkers and voters you've shown us to be in the past.

We need to go past depression and into acceptance. It's the only way the Democrats will win the elections and put one of their own in the White House.

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