Thursday, April 24, 2008

AS THE WORLD WATCHES DIVIDED DEMOCRATS MAY SELF-DESTRUCT


So Hillary wins Pennsylvania and declares only she can win the big states against the Republicans this fall. The big states for Democrats are California, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and New Jersey. Guess what Hillary, every presidential election since 1988 has been won by the Democrat in all of those states, no matter which Democrat won the nomination.

Who is she trying to kid? If every Democratic candidate the past four elections has won, then why in the world does Hillary think only she can win them? This is just more example of the campaign spin that has been out of control since the Clinton campaign fell behind on Super Tuesday and the closer we get to the end of the campaign the faster the spinning.

Political pundits said Hillary needed a double-digit win to make it a race. Hillary declared a double-digit victory. Yet the final results show Hillary won by just 9.2% of the vote after leading by over 20% a few weeks earlier. Then to add insult to injury she declared after the primary she now leads in total votes cast in the nation, while forgetting to mention that she included the votes from two states she had agreed not to count in the first place, Michigan and Florida.

What is it with the Clintons and their twisting of the truth? Bill Clinton says he doesn’t inhale pot, had nothing to do with Jennifer Flowers and most certainly was innocent with Monica. Now Hillary says she won’t use race as an issue, counts votes she agreed not to count and that she is the only Democrat that can carry big states. Have leadership and honesty been completely forgotten?

More ominous for Democrats is the polarization of the respective supporters of the candidates. Twenty-five percent of Clinton supporters say they will not vote for Obama if he wins the nomination. At the same time sixteen percent of Obama supporters say they will not support Hillary if she wins. Somewhere between 18-25% of the American public say race will be an issue in the general election. If the Democrats’ polarization stays this way McCain is the next president. There is no way the GOP will fail to capitalize on the Democratic bloodshed. So where does that leave us now?


So here we have the Democrats, the party with the more liberal leaning platform, more social oriented agenda, and with the majority of the minorities in America on the precipice of self-destructing this fall and once again handing the election back to the Republicans. What is it about Democrats that gives them an attitude that if I can’t win the primary my opponent won’t win the general election?

Of course this election is all about race, whether America has matured enough to be able to elect a minority, African-American in this case, to the presidency? The Clinton campaign has been ingenious in the ways they have subtly raised the issue and the results could prove devastating to the party chances in the general election.

Certainly the media has helped foster the polarization in the Democrats with the excessive hype paid to non-issues and self-generated drama to sensationalize normal mistakes made by aspiring politicians. For example the media demands a knock out blow from Obama to prove he can win. How stupid when the convention to decide the candidate is still four months away.

If I were at the DNC I would want the race to go down to the wire and continue dominating the national and world media coverage of my candidates until the fall campaign begins while forgetting the Republican candidate even exists. Did we forget the citizens are supposed to select the candidates, not the media or the political bosses?



What a terrible shame if the racial polarization within the Democratic party reverses over 140 years of political evolution since the Republican party under Abraham Lincoln was the dominate voice for equal rights for minorities in America. It is time the media report the news and the politicians demonstrate party loyalty. If not, then it is time to get rid of the two-party system in America so every vote counts.

There is still time to turn this around and make America proud. The electorate is still waiting for both candidates to demonstrate they are in touch with issues that concern our citizens and they offer hope for our future. There is still time for either candidate to show that they can be the inspirational leader of all the Democrats, all the Republicans and all Americans. As for the rest of the world, there is still time to demonstrate why America is the only super power left in the world. The time is now!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great article!!! Lots of food for thought here.