I just watched Wolf Blitzer interview Senator John Kerry and I'm thisclose to slapping Kerry with the dreaded "flip-flopper" label. Indeed, I am now embarrassed that I put so much time and effort (not to mention cash) behind his failed 2004 run for President.
For whatever reason (and I've never for a second believed it was anything more than politics-as-usual), Kerry came crawling out of the woodwork a few weeks ago to endorse Senator Barack Obama (vs. Senator Hillary Clinton, of course). A somewhat prickly issue is that Kerry's constituents (the people of Massachusetts) delivered Clinton a decided victory on primary day.
Kerry is a "super-delegate." As such, he can vote for whomever he wants when the convention meets in August. (The convention is where Democrats finally choose their nominee.) It is widely anticipated, however, that delegates will fulfill the wishes of their respective states. When Blitzer asked Kerry how he would respond to his constituents concerns about him voting for the wrong person, Kerry said he believes all the super-delegates should give their vote to whichever candidate is leading at the time of the convention. He then went on mention several different ways one could be in the lead: Popular vote, number of states won, and delegate count.
Of course, what Kerry was doing there was giving himself as many ways as possible to vote for Obama. It won't matter who wins the bigger share of popular votes, more primaries, and/or more delegates. As long as Obama wins at least one of those categories, Kerry can vote for him and say it wasn't a flip-flop. The return of fuzzy math!
When Blitzer asked what happens if Obama wins tonight's primaries (which is expected) but Clinton wins big in Texas and Hawaii (which will pass the momentum right back to Hillary), Kerry said we'll just have to see what happens. A non-committal answer at best.
Then Blitzer had the nerve to ask why we shouldn't all just wait to see what happens in the Pennsylvania primary (April 22). Kerry simply said he hopes he doesn't have to. Then he implored people to vote for Obama.
Like I said, it's politics-as-usual. And it's gross. But you may ask, What about any of it makes Kerry a flip-flopper? Well, I'll tell you: If back in 2004, he had been in the same boat Clinton's in right now, you can bet your economic stimulus check he'd have been singing quite a different tune about how super-delegates should cast those votes.
Pathetic and embarrassing.
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