Published: May 05, 2008 04:17 pm            

Dems’ presidential woes are three

With polling showing Pres. George Bush’s approval rating plummeting at gravity’s maximum allowable rate of 32 feet per second, per second, 2008 stacked up as an apparently inevitable year for Democratic presidential aspirations. Bush’s woes made it seem as certain as a physical law of the universe that either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton would occupy the Oval Office come January 20, 2009.

But then politics can slip into a figurative parallel universe where up is down, nothing is certain, and things can turn on a dime. Such is the case recently with presidential dreams and the Democratic Party. Worse, it isn’t any one factor that has created the turmoil Dems find themselves facing.

Obama’s coat of apparent invincibility has been severely punctured by Rev. Jeremiah Wright who, to the deep chagrin of his former parishioner, recently earned household word status. It turns out that alignment with Rev. Wright’s social gospel in which the federal government is Satan is not helpful in a race for the presidency. This truth finally dawned on the Democratic front runner and last week he broke ranks with his former pastor.

Hillary Clinton’s tenacious hanging on must keep Howard Dean, Democratic Party chairman, counting sheep at night. He correctly said if the party isn’t united by June it will be too late to get behind one candidate and win come November.

Those things are bad enough, but now comes a third and perhaps the most serious potential nail threatening to seal the Democratic presidential coffin. A group calling itself “Recreate 68” is planning to demonstrate at the National Democratic Convention this August in Denver, the reference to “68” not being arbitrary. It recalls the Democratic Convention of 1968 in Chicago in which police violently arrested and dispersed rioters outside the convention, making for a terrible spectacle broadcast on national television.

 The issue now, as then, is an unpopular war in which Democratic leaders are accused of doing too little to end. If history repeats itself and a melee takes place in August outside the Democratic National Convention the end result will also be the same. Americans will be repulsed and the chances of the Republican candidate finding himself Commander in Chief will rise exponentially.

        

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