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Democrats hunt for WH referee
03/04/2008 16:04 - (SA)
Washington - Wanted: experienced and impartial elder to end bloodletting between the Democratic Party's warring White House contenders. Response so far: no thanks.
"I'm not applying for the job of broker," says former vice president Al Gore, who is touted as one of the select few with the stature to lance the poison between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Some like former New York governor Mario Cuomo are warning that the party is courting "disaster" in November's general election, the longer the Obama-Clinton nominating battle rages.
But for Stephen Hess, a veteran White House staff member who is a senior fellow at Washington's Brookings Institution, the Democrats should just settle down for a long fight instead of appealing for divine intervention.
"I can't suggest a name who would be so acceptable to the vast majority of party professionals that they would all line up behind his or her choice," he told AFP.
Clinton likens herself to Rocky
"Who could do it? Al Gore? Al Gore couldn't win the presidency for himself," Hess said.
Democratic National Committee chairperson Howard Dean has now suggested a deadline of July 1 to wrap up the race and so give the eventual standard-bearer time to retool for the November battle against Republican John McCain.
Dean is under fire from many in the party for not taking a more assertive role to end the Florida-Michigan impasse and to keep the Obama and Clinton campaigns in line, according to a New York Times article on Wednesday.
Out on the campaign trail, Clinton is likening herself to Sylvester Stallone's indomitable boxer Rocky Balboa, vowing to stay in the fight to the final bell.
Obama appears content to wait, racking up points from a steady stream of defections by super-delegates.
So who would want to step in as referee to declare the bout over? Not Gore, despite the status he has attained as a Nobel Peace Prize and Oscar winner since his agonising defeat in the 2000 presidential election.
Ultimate resolution: a "dream ticket"
If not Gore as honest broker, what about House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi? She is the nation's top elected Democrat, and will preside over the nominating convention scheduled for August 25-28.
But remarks by Pelosi seen as favouring Obama prompted a threatening letter from pro-Clinton Democratic fundraisers recently.
Other names mentioned in the role of eminence include former president Jimmy Carter and John Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee who quit this year's White House race in January.
Perhaps the ultimate resolution will lie in pairing Obama and Clinton on a presidential "dream ticket," a scenario that Pennsylvania's Clinton-backing governor, Edward Rendell, says he would "love".
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