Superdelegate? Well, Yeah, Sort Of.......

There’s been a lot of murmuring lately from the political forest about the possibility of Al Gore getting into the whole Democratic nominee fracas.

Given that, at the moment, neither Barack nor Hillary are willing to unclench their jaws and let go of the party pant leg and the Democratic powers that be are growing increasingly concerned that there might be a need for a “broker” or even “compromise candidate” when the time comes, the guy who introduces himself as “the man who used to be the next President of the United States, has been mentioned frequently as the guy who the party might want to turn to in a pinch.

I actually know less about politics than I know about women.

So, I know less than nothing.

But, I don’t see Al getting into it.

To be sure, he’s got the qualifications.
After all, he is a former congressman, Senator, Vice President of the United States, Oscar winning producer and Nobel Prize winner.
But all of that pales to what I think is the coolest thing about stodgy old “you can call me” Al.

He’s got something in common with Superman’s father.

No, not Jonathan Kent.

That was Superman’s adoptive father here on Earth.

I’m talking about Jor-El, his biological father on the planet Krypton.

Hold that thought.

Did you read the story about the ginormous slab of ice that broke off in Antarctica?
160 square miles of ice, my friends, a hunka hunka frozen water the size of Manhattan.

Uh-oh.

And those who, like Al Gore, believe that global warming is a clear and present danger to the well being of the inhabitants of this planet are saying that this is the latest clear and present example of that danger.

Only to have the naysayers say nay and insist that global warming is a myth.

I bet if Jor-El was around today, he’d be saying the same thing that Al is saying.

Because he was the guy who told the Kryptonian Council that there was a clear and present danger that Krypton was going to blow up in a kazillion pieces only to hear the naysayers say nay and insist that the idea of an imminent explosion was a myth.

The story they stuck to right up to the very moment that Krypton blew up in a kazillion pieces.

Luckily, for his son and for those of us who grew up later wearing bath towels safety pinned around hour necks, Jor-El put his baby son Kal-El into a rocket and launched him to a flight that would bring the baby boy to Earth.

And a pretty lucrative career as Superman.

Shakespeare wrote there is nothing new under the sun.

This includes people who don’t see the future right in front of their faces.

I looked up a few for your edification.


"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
-Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
-- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
-- Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
-- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face not Gary Cooper."
-- Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make."
-- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields'Cookies.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
-- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."
-- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
-- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
-- H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.


Of course, to this list, we have to add all the “experts” who are saying that global warming and its potentially devastating effects on the planet are a myth.

I really do doubt that Al Gore is going to run for president again.

He’s way too busy trying to convince the Kryptonian Council that the planet is about to blow up in a kazillion pieces.

Starting, apparently, in Anarctica.

It Might Look Like The Morning After....But It Will Really Be High Noon...

I don’t think I’ve ever professed to be a political expert.

Personally, I think the term itself is oxymoronic.
But, I digress.

I have no official credentials or diplomas or certifications that would empower me to assert that my opinions about what goes on in politics have any more weight than the guy or gal down the street.

Or you.

I’ll tell you what, though.

I feel pretty confident that we’re about to find out whether Hillary deserves the rap that she has gotten for years that she is nothing more than an opportunistic, untrustworthy, self aggrandizing, narcissistic glory hog who would stoop as low as necessary or climb over anyone necessary to get what she wants when she wants it regardless of the consequences to God and country.

Wow. Come to think of it, she and Bill really are a match made in heaven, aren’t they?
But, I digress again.

Hillary is about to show us whether she is patriot or princess.

Public servant or public enemy.

A righteous citizen.
Or a self righteous charlatan.

And we find out the day after the Indiana primary.

More and more of her own party’s power players are telling her to quit.
And they want her to quit now, before the voting even takes place in Pennsylvania, let alone Indiana, and the other states that have primaries remaining.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t get the impression that any of these people have any particular axe to grind with either or both of the Clintons, nor do I think that they have any particular personal agenda they are pushing by calling for Hillary to step out.

Looks more like a simple matter of “do the math”.

Everyone who knows or pretends to know anything about the way these things work is saying that, at this point, there really is no way that Hillary is going to be able to get to the convention with a sufficient number of delegates to overcome Obama’s lead and that the sniping, bickering, pinching, biting and pulling hair that’s going on right now and in the months ahead is going to have two inevitable effects.

First, whichever candidate that comes out of the Democratic convention as the nominee is going to be so chewed up by the other that it’s going to take some Penn and Teller-like presto chango to convince voters that the candidate who wasn’t fit to be the nominee is now the nominee fit to be president.

And/or the voters will already be so turned off by the process that resulted in a nominee being chosen that they will likely have already decided to just pull the lever for John McCain.

It’s as if David Cook and David Archuleta suddenly started calling each other names before their performances.

Wouldn’t Ramiele just eat that up?

And make no mistake.
Hillary Clinton can do the political math as well, or better, than anybody in the room.

So it seems logical to assume that she knows that she is going to have to make a very important decision very soon.

She either sticks to her guns, justifying staying in by spouting tired platitudes like “in it to win” and “going all the way for the people” and pretty much handing John McCain the keys to 1600 for no better reason that she simply isn’t hard wired to really put the “people” ahead of her own interests.

Or she puts the pencil to it one last, thorough time, doing the math and realizing that the best way to insure that John McCain doesn’t get the chance to continue the Bush Administration for another four years is to stand up, step up, rally her troops behind Obama and prove to all the Hillaryhaters in the world that she really does have the interests of this country at heart. And that she is dedicated to putting a Democrat back in the White House.

Even if that Democrat isn’t named Clinton.

Not to mention the fact that by showing herself willing and able to put party and country ahead of self interest, she takes a lot of tarnish off the crown she wants to wear and positions herself as a presumptive front runner in 2012 should McCain beat Obama.

Again, I’m not a political expert.
And math has never been my strong suit.

But it doesn’t take a Mensa member to see that once it becomes obvious that there will be no Hail Mary pass that will put her ahead of Obama before the convention, that making that very important choice can be put off no longer.

And the way I read it…that happens the day after Indiana.

The day that after years and years of water cooler discussion about how arrogant, untrustworthy, self interested and/or self important this husband and wife team from Arkansas may or may not be, we get to find out what it is that Hillary Clinton really cares more about.

America.

Or Hillary Clinton.