Hold Your Donkeys

Published February 19, 2008

By Peter Salerno

There is a fierce battle being waged on the Democratic side of the race for the presidency. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are firing on all cylinders as they come down the home stretch. Each speaks about change in every state they are campaigning in, yet whose change is better. This is up to the voter to decide and as of right now the voter is having a tough time making that decision.

They both want to help the ‘common American,’ and take power away from lobbyists and big business. Yet with both camps touting the same ideology a clear frontrunner is nearly impossible to choose. This close race shows that the American people have awoken politically and are ready to play a part in the government, but somehow this could be a negativemovement for the Democratic Party. This is especially noticeable when both candidates are identi-fied with differentparty lines (Hillary a traditionalist and Barack a radical).

The Republican Party has views that they can stick with, party lines clearly drawn and followed by John McCain.
This is not the case for the Democrats. They are struggling with a new generation of Democrat who is not only calling for economic change, but social and military changes as well. Grappling with these demands is going to be a tough job for either Democratic candidate because of traditional party stances. Trying to bring the parties together has been a common theme of both Clinton and Obama’s campaigns yet this is a near impossible approach to modern issues that are based on religion and economic status.

All the pundits are saying that the Republican Party is dead because of the lack of a clear winner as of yet. Wouldn’t that mean the Democratic Party is in the same boat? John McCain is sure to win the nomination of his respective party before either of the Democratic candidates. So what does that indicate? Well first that McCain will have more time to sit on his stump and talk about real party issues and real plans that he has for the future. It will give him more time to prepare for either adversary in the presidential race, and much more time to raise money.

So where does this leave Hillary and Barack? Inexorably it leaves them stuck between a rock and hard place. They have to concentrate on winning the nomination first, yet how can they overlook that fact that if they do win their opponent has been able to plan for as much as a month or so in advance?

As far as elections go, this is a tight one on the Democratic side, yet that may hurt them in the long run. By not winning a decisive vote either candidate is going to have a tough time uniting their own party let alone all of Congress.

Politicians are people just like you and I and they are rooting for whom they feel will do the best job, yet after it is said and done there will be a different feel on Capitol Hill. If Hillary supporters see her get beat in a close race they may not warm up to Barack right away if at all, and the same goes for supporters of Barack who may see him lose.

In the end it’s just political ramblings by yours truly, yet I can’t help but feel a little worried about the state of my Democratic party. Sure it’s great to see that we have two amazing candidates to the one mediocre Republican nominee.

Yet the fact of the matter is that it doesn’t make a difference which candidate is better for the Democratic Party because whoever wins is going to lose a lot of the other candidates’ votes to the Republican Party. That’s human nature, people support Barack because of who he is, and people support Hillary for who she is. Hillary is much more of a Democratic Party traditionalist, so if she wins she is going to lose a lot of the independent votes Barack has worked for and many of the Republican votes Barack has turned over.

Whereas if Barack wins many of the traditional Democratic voters will see him as a candidate who does not represent what they want in the White House and will vote for a more sure and predictable candidate in John McCain. In either event this political pundit feels the longer the race for the Democratic nominee goes on the worse off the Democrats’ chances at the White House will be.

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