Barack Obama needs all the help he can get in Pennsylvania.
That means counting on every Democrat in Congress, Gov. Ed Rendell, state legislators, mayors, county commissioners and all the rest if he expects to pull out a victory in November’s election.
Even with help, Obama has his hands full with Republican John McCain, whose campaign is gearing up to woo disenfranchised Democrats who helped Hillary Clinton win the Pennsylvania primary and independents who could vote either way.
That’s why 10th Congressional District Congressman Chris Carney is letting his party down.
In a gesture of pure self-interest, to the best of my knowledge, Carney has yet to publicly endorse Obama by name as his party’s nominee.
Maybe he has privately endorsed Obama, but Carney’s obvious fear of offending conservatives like himself in his district keeps him quiet.
Many conservative Republicans and Democrats in the 10th dislike Obama.
In the district’s primary, Hillary won 70 percent of the vote despite Carney’s timidity that kept him from campaigning for her as well.
Carney is worried about himself, not his party.
Carney is a neonarc, one of the new narcissists who looks in the mirror more to commend himself than soul search for his political party’s purpose. If he looked deeper, he’d see that party support indicates party loyalty – a trait that’s necessary for a unified activism to combat Republican principles of greed.
Carney would understand the need for something more powerful than himself.
But when Carney peers into the looking glass, all he sees is ego as he preens and postures for a middling campaign for re-election. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most selfish one of all?
Self-centered Carney stands alone.
Republican opponent Chris Hackett is waging a smart race against Carney because Hackett clearly is a Republican who stands by his party and its principles. He’s even compromised in his support for moderate McCain who often represents positions that pale in comparison to Hackett’s conservatism.
But Hackett, who shows the courage of his convictions, also stands with party leaders upon whom he depends and who depend on him.
Carney is flying solo.
In a twist of bad logic, party leaders have apparently given him a pass so he can show two faces rather than one. That’s why Democrats might lose the congressional seat as well as the White House.
Republicans will stick together unlike Democrats, who are fractured perhaps beyond repair. Add Democrats for McCain, radicals who vow to write in Hillary in November, and independents who will vote Republican, and you’ve got a GOP victory.
Carney doesn’t care.
If the Republicans win the presidency he can change his registration, something I’ve expected all along. Carney is tied to the military industrial complex, the gun lobby and the anti-abortion machine of the right.
I won’t be surprised if he votes for McCain in November.
After the convention in Denver, though, it will be more difficult for Carney to hide.
Will he invite Obama to the rural outreaches in his district, where Obama absolutely needs to woo Hillary supporters if he hopes to win the state? Will Carney accompany Obama on a road trip the way U.S. Sen. Bob Casey did during the primary?
After all, isn’t Carney more a man of the blue collar working class than Casey?
Of course he isn’t.
Carney’s also something of a snob who would never have sailed into Congress had it not been for a failed Republican with a mistress who gave Carney the keys to the kingdom. Carney is more of a frat boy than Casey who’s more prep school cheerleader than keg king.
Carney is a good old boys' good old boy. But he doesn’t play well with others. Thin-skinned and defensive, he seems unsuited for the social skills required to achieve success in Congress.
Wanting to be all things to all people cultivates a serious distrust among thinking Democrats and creates a vacuum in Carney’s congressional district.
Obama needs votes from that vacuum.
And that’s just something that running-on-empty Carney can’t – and won’t – deliver.
Corbett
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