The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 3/6/08 Section: Viewpoints

John Fullwood Sixth-year political science student

With Hillary Clinton's victories in Texas and Ohio, the Democratic primary race will continue. But even so, there is no way for Clinton to win without splitting the party.

Clinton's wins in the contests on Tuesday were not enough to catch up significantly with Barack Obama. Unless the uptick in Clinton support over the weekend shows an Obama collapse rather than just a small Clinton surge, then Clinton will have to overthrow the popular vote and pledged delegates to win.

The last time anything like this happened was the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. It was a complete disaster. People were rioting in the streets as the pro-war and anti-war parts of the party fought. Followers of Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy were thrown out of the hotel by cops, and eventually his rival, Vice President Humphrey was selected and subsequently destroyed by Richard Nixon in the general election.

The 2008 convention could turn out just as badly for the Democratic Party. A popular young politician has managed to expand the Democratic base, bringing young voters and independents into the Democratic fold, while older, more traditional Democrats flock to Clinton. Although someone will get burned either way, the potential worst case is an Obama loss at the convention.

Obama still leads in the popular vote, and to win Clinton would have to get the superdelegates and the delegates from states originally disallowed. This would be ruinous. She'd end up winning by changing the rules halfway through the game.

Clinton's camp argues that superdelegates are for picking the best candidate if the popular vote doesn't go decisively one way or the other, but they've never overthrown the popular vote, even when.

Obama will end the primary season still leading in delegates, and probably will still have more of the popular vote. He's still considered by Democrats to be the best choice to defeat John McCain. And yet, Clinton thinks the superdelegates will just give her the nomination.

Clinton has ran a great campaign, but she cannot win the nomination. If she does win it, she will have ended up destroying the Democratic Party for her personal ambition. And that would be worse for her than just accepting an Obama victory.

Editor's note: John Fullwood was formerly affiliated with the Obama campaign.

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