The Lost Dem Generation

In today's Detroit Free-Press Ron Ozwonkowski warns Dems that handing the nomination to Hillary Clinton could cost them an entire generation of voters:

If -- and it's still an if -- the numbers just don't add up for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic presidential nominee, but the party, through its arcane rules and superdelegates process, gives it to her anyway, Democrats will pay dearly, for a generation or more.

Instead of re-establishing themselves as the party in power for perhaps the next 20 years, Democrats could be effectively handing the White House to Republican John McCain and alienating up to 30 million young voters who have gotten engaged in politics this year for the first time because of Barack Obama. If these voters feel that Obama has been cheated out of a chance to run for president, they and the hordes more of them becoming eligible to vote in the years ahead, will not easily return to the Democratic fold. Even if they like the party's principles, they will distrust its processes.

In this scenario, Clinton mitigates the damage only somewhat by choosing Obama as her vice presidential candidate -- a role he has said he doesn't want anyway.

More likely, young voters sit out the election (as they have in the past) and McCain wins and Democrats dissolve again into their bickering, finger-pointing ways while an emerging generation that desperately wants to see a stronger, safer and better America backs out of the political system.

Around here we call that a "win-win".

Look, anyone relying on young voters is playing with fire anyway. Historically they get all excited in the early stages of the campaign and then on election day stay home and play video games. It's happened election after election.

I remember in 2000 Al Gore had Ben Affleck running around the country drumming up support among young voters. It then turned out that on election day that not only did young voters come to the polls in their usual anemic numbers, but even Affleck didn't vote. Some role model he turned out to be.

Many Republicans have an illogical fear of Hillary Clinton and were panicked when the efforts of talk radio hosts to encourage GOP voters to cross over and vote for Clinton seemed to work. I think the candidate you know (Hillary) is much less dangerous than the candidate you don't know (Obama). We're beginning to learn about Obama and his radical friends, but many voters are still lost in the fog of "hope and change". There's no fog around Clinton. Everybody pretty much knows she's an unrepentant socialist and would have the government take more and more control of our lives.

I guarantee you the convention in Denver will be a lot more entertaining if Hillary wins the nomination thanks to the superdelegates. You'll be able to hear the Dem party deflate as she gives her acceptance speech.