Is Hill-Billy Bama a Dream Ticket or Dems Worst Nightmare?

For months now, the Democrat party has become increasingly divided as to who will be the best nominee to knock the Republicans out of the White House this fall. With all but the Clinton camp now believing Barack Obama to be the presumptive nominee, everyone’s trying to figure out how to reunite the Democrats. The Democrat leadership insists that once a candidate is selected the whole party will instantly become one big happy family behind that candidate, even though many polls suggest otherwise. Some in the party are saying the best way to mend the rift is simply to talk the two current contenders into being on the same ticket, thus creating the Hill-Billy ‘Bama ticket.

Make no mistake, this would be a shotgun wedding in the extreme. Reports indicate that the two camps, understandably, just don’t get along, even if the two candidates are able to kiss and make up. Few industries are as territorial as in politics, and with that kind of competition, it’s a safe bet that few will be happy when the two teams attempt to merge. It will be predictable gridlock, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to postulate that such gridlock would carry into an administration run by these three.

On the other hand, sometimes a shotgun wedding is the only way to form a family, albeit reluctantly. Perhaps marrying a Hatfield to a McCoy would be the best way to encourage peace in the valley. After all, European monarchies of old were always marrying into each other’s families as a way to create mutually beneficial alliances, though they didn’t always last very long.
Of course, a Hill-Billy Bama ticket likely won’t turn feuding cousins into kissing ones overnight, and therein lies a major part of the problem. How much time will the Dems need to become a single clan after suffering such a deep rift? How credible will it be to the voters, especially independents, that seemingly overnight these two feuding candidates are suddenly playing public kissy-face? How can the voter trust that the motives of either candidate is pure when both are so willing to sacrifice their principles for the sake of Party unity?

This is particularly destructive in light of the fact that Obama, necessarily, continues to preach a united America, rather than a united Democrat party, though it’s hard to image how we can have one without the other. While his alliance with the Clintons (and rest assured, it will be BOTH the Clintons in office) may assuage the hurt feelings of the Clinton supporters and thus unite the Party in the short-term, it will only raise more questions as to the truthfulness of both.

Once again, the Democrats are facing an election that is apparently theirs to lose. The short-sightedness of the rules committee, who created the primary and super-delegate rules system only to be surprised and dismayed that they might actually have to follow those rules, will become legendary after this election cycle. Whether they will learn from that lesson next time around remains to be seen.

It would seem the beneficiary of all this, naturally, is John McCain and the Republicans. The only question remaining is whether or not they can capitalize on it.