Nuclear option

To be sure, Clinton has the so-called ‘nuclear option’. In other words, she can set up a nasty procedural fight before the delegates gather to crown the presidential nominee. The party’s committees on rules and credentials are scheduled to meet in the coming weeks and do offer a chance for the Clinton campaign to demand that the delegations from Michigan and Florida, which would reduce Obama’s lead, be seated at the convention. Clinton had won both these states, but the central leadership of the party had decreed that the two state units had violated the rules by holding early primaries and will be kept out of the convention.

The Democrats are very conscious of the fact that the November election is theirs to lose. Given the unpopularity of President George W. Bush and the perceptible decline of the Republican Party, the Democratic leadership has every reason to press Clinton to end her campaign at the earliest and stop bleeding the party from within.

Obama looks ahead

Meanwhile Obama is presenting himself as the inevitable nominee of the party and pre-empting many of the

Republican attacks during the fall campaign.

In his victory speech in North Carolina, Obama declared that “The question, then, is not what kind of campaign they’ll run, it’s what kind of a campaign we will run... I didn’t get into the race thinking that I could avoid this kind of politics, but I am running for president because this is the time to end it”.

... contd.