It was the best of times for Democrats and the worst of times for Republicans. The 2006 election had given the Democrats complete control of Congress and every reason to believe that they would take over the Executive Branch in January 2009. It was only a matter of time when they would witness Hillary Clinton taking the oath of office as the first woman President of the United States.

So what happened? Well, what happened was that the Democrats made four major strategic mistakes that the Republicans were able to capitalize on.

The first mistake was assuming that Clinton would walk away with the nomination and that the nominating process did not need to be modified in the event that two or more candidates would be able to stay in contention until the end. The process expected a single candidate to get a majority of the pledged delegates during the early primaries and caucuses and then cruise to the total needed for victory even before all the states had the chance to be counted. At that point, the large contingent of Super Delegates could just vote their conscience and cast a symbolic vote that wouldn’t affect the results. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) would have been wise to permanently fix the process by either eliminating the Super Delegate concept altogether or at least force those delegates to commit to a candidate before the first state voted. Super Delegates are supposed to be the enlightened members of the party and, thus, should have weighed in on the candidates early so that the rank-and-file voting could be influenced by these party leaders. The situation was unknowingly made even worse by the DNC disenfranchising the Michigan and Florida delegates because they moved their primary dates up. The DNC figured that Clinton would get enough delegates from the other states so that the Michigan and Florida delegates would not be needed to give her the victory. Additionally, Clinton built her campaign strategy on the assumption that she was the Anointed One and that she would have an insurmountable lead after the Super Tuesday primaries. Further compounding of this mistake came about from the DNC and Hillary Clinton for not taking the time to thoroughly vet this freshman Senator named Obama who was embarking on his first presidential nomination process. The Republicans eventually did the vetting for them, but the Obama train was already rolling towards nomination station before the voters found out about Obama’s sordid associations with Reverend Wright, William Ayers, Tony Rezko, etc. Had this information been in the public eye before the Iowa caucuses, even the inspiring messages of “change” would not have been enough for most Democratic voters to take a chance with this guy at the top of their ticket in ’08. Unfortunately for the Democrats, they unwittingly took away Clinton’s coronation and put forth a candidate that would have less of chance to win in November.

The other early mistake by the Democrats was thinking that McCain would be the easiest Republican to run against. They knew that his reaching across the aisle and sponsoring liberal legislation would alienate him among conservatives, many of whom they hoped would stay away from the polls. Also, they figured that their historic first woman presidential candidate going up against the old, curmudgeonly maverick was a matchup made in heaven (separation of church and state aside). The NY Times endorsed McCain simply for the purpose of attracting interest to him in the primaries and many others in the liberal media sang his praises.  On top of that, many Democrats crossed over to vote for McCain in the early primaries, and with the help of a strong showing of Independents, McCain got his first victory from the New Hampshire voters. If the Democrats would have realized at the time that McCain was the only Republican candidate that stood a chance of winning in the general election, they would not have been so quick to help revive his dying campaign and help get him back into contention. However, the Democratic CPR was not enough by itself to propel McCain to the nomination. It also required having a slate of Republican candidates from whom the conservative base could not readily identify their next Ronald Reagan. As the primaries got rolling, the conservatives were in disarray on who to vote for and the results got spread out and watered down among several candidates until McCain was able to slip past everyone with the moderate, independent and Democratic crossover vote. By the time conservatives decided that Romney could be their guy, McCain had too much momentum to overcome. So the Democrats got the Republican nominee they wanted – unfortunately for them, it was another big mistake.

As the primary season was coming to a close with Obama holding a narrow lead in pledged delegates, another major mistake was made. That mistake was for the Super Delegates to give the nomination to Obama instead of Clinton. The writing was on the wall; Obama had only a slight polling lead over McCain when he should have been up by 15-20 points and Clinton had thumped him in key states down the stretch. His inspirational rhetoric could no longer mask his past associations, his #1 liberal voting record or his lack of qualifications. At this point, the DNC, Clinton and the “super” Super Delegates should have met with him and asked him to step aside and take the VP spot on the Clinton ticket. With enough support from the Super Delegates, they could have made him an offer that he couldn’t refuse, because they would have had enough delegates to swing the victory to Clinton. They could have pointed out the benefits for him; he would be the first black Vice President, he would have more time to distance himself from Reverend Wright, et al., get valuable VP experience and be the next Democrat in line for the Presidency. It would be a dream ticket for Democrats and ensure a victory in November. Unfortunately, the black contingent of the Democratic Party would not consider the idea that Obama had to give up his opportunity for the good of the party. Obama was their chance to have a historic President and they deserved to have the first black President as much as others felt entitled to have the first woman President. There were even threats that if Clinton was handed the nomination, blacks would stay at home on November 4 and that there would be the chance of rioting in the streets. The Democrats could not afford to risk losing the black vote and, thus the third mistake became reality.

The fourth mistake for the Democrats was Obama’s VP selection. Putting Hillary Clinton (or should I say “Team Clinton”) on the bottom of the ticket would have at least shored up most of the disgruntled Clinton voters and been a historic first for both slots. Besides showing total disrespect for the person who was supposed to be the Anointed One, the Biden decision was a huge mistake because it highlighted Obama’s inexperience, especially on foreign policy, and basically added nothing positive to the ticket. Biden’s relatives and friends in Delaware are not enough additional votes to offset the lost Clinton voters. Correspondingly, McCain, with the advantage of going second, totally trumped Obama’s choice by putting a woman in the number two slot. She would likely have been the selection no matter who Obama chose, but the impact to the ticket is much more significant with Clinton standing on the sidelines. Also, Palin adds much more to the ticket than just being a woman. She has energized the Republican base with her conservative credentials, she is a strong communicator and complements the change McCain wants to bring to Washington with her reformer image. Palin provides a boost to the McCain ticket regardless, but the impact would have been much less if she was matched up against Clinton and the upside-down dream ticket. Obama had the chance to show his good judgment with his first major decision as the nominee and he blew it royally.

With several weeks left in the campaign, the cumulative effect of these major strategic mistakes has turned the best of times for Democrats into panic time. The only “hope” they believe in now is to adopt an all-out attack on the Republican ticket and hope they can inflict a mortal political wound in the eleventh hour. Maybe they will even resort to an October surprise of dumping Biden for Clinton. Can they pull out a victory from the jaws of defeat…or will they just be making another mistake?