Taking Time To Decide

There are a lot of worry-warts out there among the pundits who claim that the longer the Democrats take to select a presidential candidate, the worse it is for the party. I respectfully disagree. The reason for my disagreement is this; the intense battle for the nomination between Clinton and Obama is the de facto presidential election. The winner of this nomination will be the next president of the United States. John McCain, as much as I like and respect him, has a major problem. He must, of necessity, court, woo and pander to the conservative branch of his party through November to gain their votes. Example; yesterday McCain visited He who would be King at the White House whereupon the soon-to-be-departing king proclaimed that McCain would carry on with the Bush approach to the Iraqi war. In other words, the promise is clear. We would be faced with another four to eight years of exactly the approach that has tended to destroy our moral authority world wide. McCain is, thus, in the proverbial catch-22. If he endorses conservative sacred cows, he loses the middle of the road independents. If he moves to the center on issues, his seemingly natural place, he loses the support of the rabid right and every time he makes a public pronouncement in support of the values they cherish, e.g., more and more guns in households, the right of lunatics to brandish semi-automatic weapons, a few more percentage points in favor of the Democratic candidate will be gained. In short, it is my opinion that the presidential election will result in a landslide victory for the Democrats who are bolstered by the independents who recognize and understand the danger that has been created for our country by the current crop of pseudo-conservatives.

Thus, the Democratic primaries are, in essence, the real race for the presidency. It is good that the selection process is taking time. The more that Clinton and Obama are forced in the heat of the battle to particularize their respective positions, the more that such transparency will present the opportunity for the public to assess them.