The whole prexy election thing is a tough call this year.
I know that McCain is a douche and that electing him would leave us with nothing more than four years of geriatric Bush redux.
On the other hand, I fear that letting Obama into the Oval Office would be roughly the equivalent of Willie Wonka handing the keys to the Chocolate Factory over to a Charlie who wears a helmet and rides the short bus to school.
McCain is scary.
Obama is woefully inexperienced and naïve.
That leaves Hillary Clinton. Need I say more? Would someone please give us a reasonable alternative? (No, Barr, I don’t mean you.)
I am, despite my increasing motivation to move to Canada, enjoying the high political drama posed by the never-ending battle between Obama and Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Not that it really matters, since whoever the Donkey Party nominates this year will win in November. They could put a beaver and ’59 Edsel on the ticket, and still win against McCain. That’s just how frightened the country is of the GOP (a leisure service of PNAC and The Carlyle Group).
This past weekend, we had the opportunity to watch the DNC dither over how to handle its own iatrogenic problems of Michigan and Florida. To listen to the delegates, you might come to believe that the disenfranchised voters of Florida and Michigan were to blame for their own lack of representation. In fact, the true culprits were the DNC themselves.
The DNC stated several times during the debate this past weekend that the true intent of their ‘punishment’ of Florida and Michigan – despite their contention that they didn’t want these two states to ‘pre-load’ the primaries – was actually to preserve the traditional role of New Hampshire and Iowa in pre-loading the primaries. This, even AFTER they allowed New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Iowa to move their own primaries almost back into December of ought-seven!
In other words, they don’t give a rat’s ass that the primaries might be pre-loaded, they just want to make damned certain that this pre-loading is done by the states they designate.
How childish.
And, despite the fact that the DNC created its own quagmire over a year ago in stripping delegates from Florida and Michigan, they don’t seem to believe that they’ve done anything wrong.
As recently as March, a Democrat close to Howard Dean stated, "Everyone seems to be asking what the DNC will do. But the question is: what will the state parties do?"
Want to know how the DNC blew it? Three items:
First and most obvious was the disenfranchising of Florida and Michigan. Florida’s Democrats were royally screwed by their own Republican-dominated legislature and governor, and could no more control when their primary was held than could Santa Claus. Yet, the DNC seemed totally content to punish the victims.
In Michigan, the Democratic Party had to decide between complying with the DNC’s obvious bias toward New Hampshire and Iowa, and breaking Michigan state law which set the statewide primary date at January 29. The only option they had would have been to revert to a clumsy, very un-Democratic caucus system to choose delegates.
Second, the DNC established a system of Superdelegates, out of a fear that the ‘voters might get out of hand’. Very, very un-Democratic, guys.
Finally, I would love to get my hands on the throat of the guy who came up with proportional representation for Convention delegates. This system was tailor-made for a close, undecided race and back-room wrangling. If ever there was a recipe for a brokered convention, the DNC came up with a Betty Crocker Cookoff-winning humdinger this cycle.
The DNC is looking around for someone to blame for their mess? All they have to do is check the closest mirror. While they don’t want to admit it, they screwed the pooch, and now all they can do is haggle over who gets to raise the puppies.
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