Unify Democrats with Clinton/Obama ticket
In our last editorial, we called for a unified Democratic ticket with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. We were deluged with calls from mainly Blacks who were very upset that we endorsed Sen. Clinton for president. We also noted Obama’s 11 straight primary victories over the New York Senator. With closer inspection, we noticed that the states that Obama carried were mainly "Red" states that represent conservative Republicans. On Saturday, March 8, Obama added Wyoming to his winnings after capturing the most delegates in that state’s caucus. In the March 4 primary, he only won Vermont. While the Illinois Senator’s victories are significant, the states he is generally winning will not assure a victory against Sen. John McCain, the Republicans’ apparent nominee in the November general elections.
Sen. Clinton was able to carry the larger industrial states that will give Democrats a chance to take back the White House in November. We credit the efforts of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, (D-Ca.), for working on behalf of Sen. Clinton to win the California primary. Likewise, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) helped deliver Texas for Hillary, along with Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Oh) for her successful efforts in Ohio on March 4. Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) campaigned for Hillary in winning New York in the "Super Tuesday" Democratic primaries. I guess we ought to give credit to Senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, who, although Obama supporters, indirectly helped Hillary to win Massachusetts.
The large industrial states that Hillary won have large Electoral College votes that will be needed in November. If we put Obama up against McCain and depended on the southern states and the western "Red" states, McCain would win by a landslide. The southern Democrats have a bad habit of voting Republican in the general elections.
If we look back to just the last general elections we will see that the teams of former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. Joe Lieberman, and Sen. Kerry and former Sen. John Edwards were all abandoned by the southern Democrats. Definitely, we don’t expect them to support Clinton or Obama this time around, despite the huge turnouts in the primaries.
In all fairness, if Obama is the Democratic nominee, those industrial states that Clinton won in the primaries will certainly vote for Obama. However, it would be unfair and disingenuous to nominate Obama, who carried mostly "Red" states that are worthless in the general elections and not nominate Clinton who carried the big industrial states in the primaries. We hope the Super Delegates will support Sen. Clinton in Denver, Colorado where the Democratic Convention will be held this summer. We know that if Sen. Obama is not nominated many Blacks and especially young people, will be discouraged and not vote or in the worse case scenario, vote Republican. This is usually what inexperienced and uninformed voters do when they don’t get their choice. We can only hope that all Democrats will stay united behind the Democratic ticket whether it is Sen. Clinton or Sen. Obama. Our newspaper will support and endorse the Democratic nominee, regardless!
