Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama Will Fight on

Super Tuesday Two, which took place on March 4^th, 2008, and involved primary contests in Vermont, Rhode Island, Ohio, and Texas was suppose to be the day Hillary Clinton was put away for good. Instead, Senator Clinton emerged triumphant.

Hillary Clinton won three states, Rhode Island, Ohio, and Texas, losing only Vermont to Barack Obama. Obama won the second round in Texas, consisting of a caucus that took place after the regular primary. Hillary Clinton, because of the proportional delegate allocation rules, won only a handful or so more delegates than did Barack Obama.

No matter. Hillary Clinton lives on to fight some more. In fact, she will live on for many months, all the way to the August convention in Denver. The odds are that she will not win enough delegates to win the nomination outright. But then the odds are only slightly less unfavorable for Obama to win the nomination outright.

The first thing that we can expect is many weeks and months of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama attacking one another, spending enormous sums of money that could have been spent attacking John McCain. That's many weeks and months for lots of people to decide that maybe both candidates are right and both candidates no more need to be ensconced in the Oval Office than a demented denizen of Bedlam.

The time will be sufficient for all sorts of news to happen. Will some shady deal Barack Obama made back in Chicago come out so awful that even his worshipers start to get turned off. Will Bill Clinton get caught doing something horrible with some woman, thus embarrassing his wife's campaign? The possibilities are endless.

And, of course, the desire of both candidates to conduct a policy of appeasement abroad and socialism at home will become more and more apparently. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama can tolerate too much scrutiny of their political philosophies. That's why Hillary Clinton gasses on about "experience" and Barack Obama drones on about "hope" and "change."

Meanwhile, John McCain is free to make statesmanlike speeches on national security, the economy, and other subjects, amassing huge amounts of cash for the fall campaign, organizing the Republican Party to suit his campaign, and choosing a running mate. It will be a telling contrast to the food fight taking place across the aisle.

All of that will only serve as a prelude to the main event, provided that neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama, by hook or crook, grabs enough super delegates and/or delegates pledged to the other candidate to go over the top. Then it will be an old fashioned brokered convention of the type that hasn't been seen since the Truman Administration. For a hint of what that might be like, rent a copy of The Best Man, staring Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson, based on a play by Gore Vidal.

The reality is likely to be more exciting than the movie. If one side or another, by hook or crook (there'll be no other way to do it) grabs the nomination, all hell will break lose. There will be fist fights in the convention hall. There will be blood in the streets of Denver. There will be screaming. There will be yelling. There will be mayhem that will make Chicago 1968 seem like a school picnic.

It is the nightmare of Democrats. It is the dream of pundits, reporters who are not in the tank for one Democrat or another, and of course Republicans. The one downside is that it will make the subsequent Republican Convention seem boring by comparison.

There is another possibility. The convention is deadlocked. It's about the twentieth ballot or so and no candidate has been chosen. Time to chose a compromise candidate, someone who will unite the party. Then all Democrat eyes turn toward-Al Gore?

The idea of a candidate for President chosen by the boys (and girls) in the smoke free back rooms, in the 21^st Century, just boggles the mind. And if Rush Limbaugh's boasting has any credence (at least ten to thirty percent of the people voting for a Democrat were nominal Republicans) we might have the man behind the Golden EIB Microphone to thank for it.

One cannot write this as fiction.