Nearly two weeks after the GOP settled on a presidential nominee, the protracted civil war among Democrats appears to be causing significant damage to their party.
The internecine strife already has prompted the resignations of Hillary Clinton adviser Geraldine Ferraro (for saying Obama would not be a contender if he were white) and Barack Obama adviser Samantha Power (who called Clinton a “monster”). And recriminations are mounting over the disputed primary elections in Florida and Michigan.
“This is going to go on for months, and let me tell you something: It’s going to get worse,” said Democrat Patrick Caddell, who was President Carter’s pollster. “This is the best year my party has had to win an election since 1976 — where the other party is badly, structurally hurt — and we’re getting into a situation where we may lose it.”
While Clinton and Obama spend their money and resources attacking each other, Republican John McCain has the luxury of working to unite his party and stockpiling resources for the general election.
“McCain should send his opponents a check and a thank you to keep it up,” said Democrat Donna Brazile, who managed Al Gore’s presidential bid in 2000.
Some Democrats insist the acrimony will dissipate and the party will ultimately unite behind a nominee before the general election in November.
But for the moment, Democrats are badly divided over whether to hold new primaries in Florida and Michigan, where the Democratic National Committee nullified previous elections because they were held too early, in violation of party rules. Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Thurman says the flap “now has the potential to result in irreparable damage for years to come.”
“Fingers have been pointed in every direction, but how we arrived at this breaking point is irrelevant,” Thurman wrote in an “urgent memo” to Obama, Clinton and other top Democrats. “The stark reality is that all Democrats lose if this is not resolved immediately.”
A plan for holding a largely mail-in primary in Florida by June 3 received a cool reception last week from both the Obama and Clinton campaigns. Party leaders are frantically trying to reach some compromise to allow the seating of the two large state delegations at the convention.
Veteran Democrats worry that the identity politics driving the primaries — with young people, blacks, white men and affluent liberals favoring Obama, and women, working-class whitesand the elderly supporting Clinton — may create fissures in the party that linger through the November general election.
“The Democrats cannot afford to wait until August — or even until the results of Pennsylvania are known next month — to start the healing process,” Brazile said.
Obama himself fretted about the “the kind of slice-and-dice politics that’s about race and about gender,” adding, “When we divide ourselves in that way, we can’t solve problems.”
