If you listen to the political experts out there, you would think the primary race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was the worst primary battle ever. People are depressed because the differences between the Barack camp and the Hillary camp are sooooo irreconcilable. I think people tend to exaggerate the tensions between people running against each other in the primaries. I don't think the primary race betweeen Barack and Hillary is any better or worse than any other primary race. In fact, I can see President Barack Obama working together with one of his strongest allies in the Senate, Hillary Clinton, many times over the next eight years.
The George W. Bush-John McCain primary fight of 2000 was much more brutal and malicious than anything we have seen this year. In South Carolina, McCain was accused of having a black daughter born out of wedlock. Cindy McCain had visited an orphanage in Bangladesh run by Mother Teresa in 1991 and returned to the United States with a three-month old baby. The McCains adopted this baby and named her Bridget. Bridget was 9 years old in 2000 when George W. Bush's henchmen labeled her a "black bastard" because of her dark skin. Around the same time, McCain was labeled a "Manchurian Candidate" because of his five and a half years as a prisoner of war. Of course, the topic of what George W. Bush was doing during this time was dismissed as old news.
One of the reasons why I do not mind that Hillary Clinton is still in the race is because it keeps a conversation going. Political parties need to be constantly adjusting to the changing times. On some issues, Hillary Clinton probably has some really good ideas. And Barack Obama would benefit from running with some of them. Pundits out there seem to think that a political party will just break apart because people are running against each other. But they forget that political parties have always been made up of different sets of ideas and beliefs. If you think you are a better candidate, run as hard as you can. If the belief that competition in primaries is bad then that would have precluded Obama from running for president this year since Hillary Clinton was seen as the presumed candidate in 2008.
I am pretty sure that idea wouldn't have flown with Obama's millions of supporters back then as we are seeing that that idea doesn't fly with Clinton's millions of supporters now.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Create the Hate
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2 comments:
I don't think this was the worst primary ever.
I think what happened was that Hillary showed people that she would resort to the very same tactics that she decried when they were used against her.
This saddened many people who had defended Hillary and Bill during the 90's.
In addition, the tone from the Hillary Camp got very negative after it was clear that Obama had taken a substantial lead and this was probably there only shot, to tear him down.
You're absolutely right about the benefits of continuing to debate ideas but the problem is that ideas about solving the problems in this country were rarely discussed in the last two months.
Seriously, besides the gas tax, what policy was discussed? Name one...
You can't because all that was talked about were the following things:
1. Jeremiah Wright
2. Sniper Fire
3. Bittergate
4. Electability
5. What to do about MI and FL
6. Who won the debates
7. What's up with the Super Delegates
8. We need someone who is ready on Day One
9. Who's better at drinking beer and whiskey
So yes, this primary by historical standards is not the worst ever seen (probably not even close.)
That said, it was dreadful precisely because of the descent into divisive, character assaults, not the intelligent discussion about issues of health care, foreign policy and what to do about the economy.
I think that people talk so much about the Democratic primary that if some trivial stuff makes its way into the debate, well, I can live with that, Josh.
People made such a big deal about the ABC debate where the first half was focused on so-called trivial matters. There have been about 25 debates. The first half of this debate equates to about 1/50 of all the debate time.
Yeah, I can live with that.
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