During the 1980 Democratic Primary run, Ted Kennedy and Gov. Jerry Brown were taking their best shots at unseating incumbent President Jimmy Carter. Carter was sitting with a 28% approval rating and inflation was on the rise. Kennedy started out with a Gallup Poll lead of 58-25 against Carter in August of 1979. By the end of the primaries, Kennedy had lost his lead mostly due to the patriotic effect of the Iran hostage situation. Nevertheless, Kennedy ended the primary season by winning the majority of the races in June. Furthermore, Kennedy had only won 12 primary states. Still Ted Kennedy refused to drop out, and headed for the convention to face one of the nastiest fights on record. When Kennedy did concede, he gave a good speech, but totally ignored Carter and made no mention of Carter in his concession speech.
Now Hillary Clinton still holds her delegates and the likes of Debra Barstoshevich and Sacha Millstone will probably be stripped of their delegate status..you know the "non-party players" who dare to vote their conscience. Amazing, why even have a convention? Have the coronation in Chicago for the gangland rascal of a candidate, Barack Obama. Spare the rest of us the nausea and forcing us to by-pass the major newscasts.
So once again the point is made that many, many democrats are not going to be forced by guilt to get on the band-wagon for a candidate that has been selected by a very undemocratic process no matter the platform. Would we really expect our party to honor it as well?
