Allow me to deviate from what is apparently the emerging consensus that the dust up between Obama and Clinton is a bad thing. First of all, nobody in the real world cares. People aren’t paying attention to the political machinations this far out ahead of time, no matter how much the media, the pols, and the political junkies like myself are. It has no impact on the general election.
But it has been a long time since the Democrats had a real fight for the nomination. In ‘96 and ‘00 we essentially had incumbent administrations running, and while Gore had something of a challenge from Bill Bradley it wasn’t very serious. But the argument can be made that Bradley forced Gore to be a little quicker on his feet. In 2003-4 we had less of a nomination process than a coronation. I fault myself for this as well, but the desire to knock out Bush was so strong, Dems thought the right path was to get the “silly” nomination thing over with as quickly as possible. To his political credit, Sen. Kerry got the wind to his back and kept on running. But by the summer of ‘04 it became clear the Kerry team wasn’t ready to fight back in a modern campaign setting. He hadn’t really been tested in the primaries and caucuses so Bush just smashed us in the mouth and ran to the end zone.
Right now we’re seeing some friction between Obama, Clinton, and Edwards. Good. Make ‘em fight. Make ‘em rumble. Let’s see who’s going to have the right kind of operation to fight a Republican party that is not only going to be as strong as they were operationally in 2004, but cruising for a major fight after losing in 2006. They’re not going to roll over, and neither should our candidates. There will be lots of time for kumbaya moments. Hillary will join hands with Obama, whoever loses the nomination will endorse the eventual winner. We’ll have a candidate who could tough out the party nomination and will be ready to face the Republicans.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Hmm, I prefer: “What doesn’t kill me just delays the inevitable.”
I agree. Nobody but the top 1% of the us political junkies give a damn right now, so any fight that does happen 99% good practise for when the GOP slime machine gets rolling.
The only fear I have is if they sides spend too much effort trying to dig up attack, ones that the GOP can use later on. But here you assume the Democratic Party is better at coming up with low blows than the GOP are. I find that next to impossible to accept.
I don’t mind except when the Today Show host Meredith Vieria makes it a big deal. She goaded Edwards make a comment, which he politely answered (as he considered himself as a guest, not the heir apparent) he wishes there weren’t so much sniping, but to me, on a subject as serious as war with Iraq, the Today Show’s lead-off story, and to ask another candidate to comment on a dust-off that has nothing to do with him or his views is bad journalism.
The Today Show is rating lower and lower with me, but that’s JMO. C-SPAN is also tilting a little towards the Obama-Clinton rivalry in terms of news they mention on WJ.
At least they are not covering Anna Nicole Smith.
Clinton or Obama for president?
Agreed.
Let Edwards, Obama, and Hillary knock each other silly trying to figure out who’s the best candidate, so that the best potential president — Richardson (or Gore) can walk through for the nomination.