I discussed E.J. Dionne's piece Dems' Agonizing Obsession with Fairness today. Dionne is absolutely on target in my opinion. Dionne writes:
The party has three problems. Its excruciatingly proportional system of delegate selection is so fair to the losers of primaries that no primary winner can ever get a big bounce in convention delegates, thus the problem both Obama and Clinton now face in assembling a majority.What do you think?
Second, an absolutely maniacal dispute over when each state should vote means that the delegations from Florida and Michigan are now illegitimate. Clinton claims them, having won primaries that all the candidates agreed not to contest. Democrats know that they can't just seat the disputed Clinton delegates, yet they must have delegations from these two crucial states. Please, guys, schedule fresh primaries, fast.
And then there are the superdelegates, the established politicians who are supposed to know how to pick winners. But who is the winner between Obama and Clinton?
... The success of Clinton's tough anti-media, anti-Obama campaign means that Obama will now have to get just as rough on her. All the incentives are for Democrats to pound each other between now and the April 22 Pennsylvania primary. They will either ignore John McCain or, worse, build him up as a formidable threat that one of them is too weak to handle.
Link to article (from RealClearPolitics)
4 comments:
I think that these quotes from my favorite dead political analyst, H L Mencken might be appropriate here:
"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods."
"A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and a couple of hangings thrown in. "
"Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other, and the candidates spend so much time making each other's speeches, that by the time election day is past there is nothing much to do save turn the sitting rascals out and let a new gang in."
" If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner."
"It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."
"Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it."
"Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage."
"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance."
"Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good."
"I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time."
"Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses."
"I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone."
"I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time."
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable."
Jacque,
Many of the quotes are both funny, sad, and true all at the same time.
The DNC process has a lot of flaws and the process has really taken a hit this election because of the closeness of the nomination. They really need to revisit their thinking on the whole process. That being said, I see a lot of energy in their base that appears not to be there in the Republican base at least at this juncture.
So far, as opposed to others, I feel the primaries have been pretty gentle. I expect the see a lot more dirty politcs and smear campaigns in the general election. I do not expect that the negativity will come so much from the leading candidates. I DO however expect to see many and repeated attacks from the 3rd party groups, hate mongering bloggers, and the general afternoon and evening Talk Radio crowd (throw in some of the TV commentators here as well to be fair).
So, yes the election process is unfortunately what it is and Mencken was right on with some of his comments.
You know the real irony of the Florida/Michigan part of this debacle? The whole reason they are in this mess is because they wanted to have a bigger say in the nomination. That is why they moved their contests up in the calendar. Imagine how important their 'say' in the contest would be right now if they had kept their races on Super Tuesday?
As an Obama supporter, my concern is that he doesn't seem to fit the mold and will get smeared by the powerbrokers within his own party.....aka the Clinton cronies and machine.
Ironically, something similar happened to John McCain in 2000 when he was perceived as a 'maverick' by the poo-bahs within his own chosen club.
Team politics favors the ones with access to the big money and is strangling the very foundations upon which our country was founded.
Tossed aside (in my opinion) are people like Dennis Kucinch and Ron Paul. We get sucked into the same slimy swill and root for our team to throw more mud on the other team.
"It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. Theis makes me forever ineligible for public office." My favorite HL Menken quote from the list.
I'm not supporting the Democratic Party......I'm supporting Barack Obama. To me, there's a big difference.
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