Oh, the drama of it all. The drama that is the Hillary Clinton campaign.
What will she say next? What will she do next?
I do not know, but I do know this: There is a huge drama gap between the Clinton campaign and the Barack Obama campaign. In fact, it is more like a chasm.
Whenever things get dull, whenever things settle down and people begin to concentrate on how Clinton is a serious candidate with a serious message, championing serious issues, she manages to heat things up.
Why talk about health care or energy policy or the housing crisis when you can talk about ... the assassination of Robert Kennedy!
I always thought that the first rule of talking about assassination in a political campaign is that you never talk about assassination in a political campaign.
In no way, in no context. (Because we all know the media are sticklers for context, right?)
But then, I know nothing about drama. There are all kinds of categories in which Obama leads Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination: pledged delegates, superdelegates, states won, etc.
But he definitely trails her badly on drama. He is regional theater to her Broadway.
And that is because he is just so ... predictable.
What does he talk about day in and day out? McCain ... change ... the war ... change ... the economy ... change.
Yada, yada.
The Hillary Clinton campaign does not know from this kind of campaigning. It does not plod. It hurtles.
Even when it tries to do something dull, it can't manage it.
This week, on the same day that Clinton sent an 11-page letter to every Democratic superdelegate, carefully, painstakingly (and nearly endlessly) outlining why she should be the nominee of the party, one of her chief supporters, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, went on Bloomberg Television and said it is "very unlikely" that Clinton is going to win.
"I'm a realist, and I think most likely the superdelegates will give Sen. Obama the votes he needs," Rendell said.
And what is an 11-page letter compared to that?
Don't get him wrong. Rendell still thinks Clinton is the better candidate. He is a "realist," however, and he does not believe the party is going to "fairly adjust" the disputed delegates in Florida and Michigan in her favor. "So I think it's very unlikely that Sen. Clinton can prevail," he said.
But wait! The Clinton campaign knows there is one thing that still can save the day when it comes to Florida and Michigan: drama!
The Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic Party is going to meet in Washington this Saturday to rule on the disputed delegations and Clinton supporters are planning a huge march and demonstration.
I have attended meetings of the Rules and Bylaws Committee in past years, and here is my impression of its members: serious. Very serious. So serious, they make members of the Supreme Court look giddy in comparison.
Want a hint as to what the committee cares about? Take a look at its name: Rules and Bylaws.
So what do think? You think its members like unruly crowds? Demonstrations? Tumult? Uproar? Commotion? Attempts to intimidate?
The Obama people — those rank amateurs! — don't think so.
"We don't think it's a helpful dynamic to create chaos," David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, said. "In the interest of party unity, we're encouraging our supporters not to protest."
The Clinton campaign has a different view.
Terry McAuliffe, the Clinton campaign chairman, Thursday defended the planned demonstration, by saying: "I like excitement! Let's show passion!"
Allida Black, a professor at George Washington University and a Clinton supporter, is helping to organize the demonstration and is hoping that people come from all over the nation. "We're trying to flood it," she says
The Obama campaign is about a different kind of flood.
Every week I get a flood of e-mails from them. Very dry. Very undramatic. Here is the last one I got. It came Wednesday evening, and it was only 26 words long:
"Today, Oregon superdelegate Wayne Kinney endorsed Barack Obama. Kinney is the 321.5th superdelegate to endorse Obama, who is 45 delegates away from capturing the Democratic nomination."
Yawn. Wake me when it's over.
Which could be pretty soon now.
