The Democratic Party-The Eve of Destruction?

This story just moved from the Los Angeles Times. Barack Obama is giving Hillary the opportunity to have her name placed in nomination before the Democratic Convention in two weeks.

Obama is quoted as saying:

"I am convinced that honoring Sen. Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong, united fashion," Barack Obama said in a statement issued jointly by their two press offices.

Meanwhile, E.J. Dionne has this take on developments:

Because the Clinton campaign failed to anticipate the importance of delegates elected through caucuses rather than primaries, her operatives regularly argued that Obama's caucus triumphs lacked the same weight as her primary victories.

Because Obama overwhelmed Clinton in many staunchly Republican states, he was said not to be the choice of real Democrats and swing voters in states such as New York and California, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Some of the memos suggested, without quite saying so, that Clinton's voters were more inherently virtuous than Obama's. After all, she was the candidate of the constituency her pollster Mark Penn labeled the "Invisible Americans," the descendants of Richard Nixon's "Silent Majority." The white working class, especially less well-to-do women, was with Clinton. Obama had the well-educated voters, that crowd Nixon's Vice President Spiro Agnew saw as "effete," and, of course, African-Americans who would have been part of Clinton's base against any rival except Obama.

And there is that Penn memo that speaks of Obama's "lack of American roots." Clinton thankfully declined to take up this idea, but John McCain's ads are now subtly toying with it.

The more Obama's victories were cast as less than real, the more passionate Clinton's own supporters became about the injustice of her defeat. A minority of her supporters threatens trouble at the Denver convention unless Obama gives her a roll call vote in which never-say-die Clintonites could express their loyalty one last time.

Obama has already given the Clinton forces a night for Hillary and part of a night for Bill. In truth, he has little choice in a nearly 50-50 party, but the Obama people have to be frustrated with the Clintonites for not recognizing how far he is going to give them their due.

Yet some of the Clinton folks still think that Obama has not been respectful enough of the Clintons and their historical contributions. Bill Clinton is clearly put out. This perceptive politician has to be more aware than anyone of the mistakes he and his wife's campaign made. That makes the whole thing harder, for him and for Obama.

Obviously, Obama hopes that placing Hillary's name in nomination will quiet the Clintonistas and assuage their anger for his winning the party's nomination. Obama is very,very wrong in this assumption. What he is doing is taking a pile of straw, pouring some gasoline on it in the form of having Bill Clinton take a prominent speaking roll, and then having Hillary hold a lighted match one millimeter from the explosive pile while Obama is saying "See, I'm in control and it's safe!"

This move might very well blow up in his face if the voters at home watching on T.V. see a split and angry Democratic party forming its quadrennial circular firing squad. The electorate's utter disgust could lead to more ballots marked for McCain, as the undecided and independent voters wonder, "This guy can't stand up to Hillary. How is he going to stand up to Putin?"