Tuesday night Senator Obama reached the number of delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination for President. That vote will be confirmed at the Convention in August and Obama will carry the mantle of Democratic leadership in the general election in November.
It is now Mr. Obama's responsibility to convince the voters that he is the best candidate to lead the country for the next four years. Mr. McCain will carry the same burden for the Republican party. There will now be a lot of focus on who will be picked as V.P. on both sides and the news media will try to tell us how important that choice is, but make no mistake, it is the Presidential candidate themselves who will bear the responsibility for selling their vision to the voters.
There are those in the news media and other supporters of the candidates who are already talking about blaming some one else if the candidate they support looses. The blame game has already been placed in the fast lane.
The chance of a nasty campaign in the general election are high. The Republicans are masters at saying nasty things about their opponents because they themselves feel inadequate. Because for the first time an African American is a Presidential nominee the race card will be played when nasty remarks are made even though it may not be a racist remark and before you know it the nasty campaign will be in high gear.
Personal attacks and false statements by politicians have been accepted by the voters for many years. That is why it works. Voters say they do not like it but end up using it to support their vote. They also tolerate it by watching it on T.V. and listening to it on talk radio for hours. Who wants a dull campaign when you can have a nasty one and the winner accomplishes nothing after the election.
The voters will find out real soon what kind of campaign Obama and McCain choose to run. They are both talking change and the people have given them a chance to do so. Lets see if they deliver on their promises and articulate what kind of change they are talking about. Lets also see if the voters have learned anything.
3 comments :
Well, with his support of FISA, it looks like Obama is caving to the right even before getting elected. Like all candidates, Obama has made some blunders and misstatements during the campaign but his waffling on FISA is HUGE and will probably cost him the election. Progressives and independents supported hi because we thought he was different than the other Washington politicians. If he goes ahead and votes his approval of this bill and proves to us that we were wrong about him, I WILL be voting for Ralph Nader in November.
Obama's votes in the Senate since he was elected several years ago was a good indication for the Progressive and Independents that he was no different than the other Washington politicians, so his stand on FISA is not suprising. Talking about change does not bring change, but it sure is a way to induce voters to overlook ones record.
One of the things that the Democrats always seem to be good at is shooting themselves in the foot in election years. Why do the Democrats feel the need to scurry to the right once they've wrapped up the nomination? It's not like they're going to win over any conservatives. All of the conservatives are going to vote Republican. The Democrats need to worry more about pleasing the people who voted for them in the primaries, the progressives and moderates. Even though they're not going to out-conservative the Republicans, trying to appease the conservatives could cost enough votes to make what should be a political rout into anyone's contest.
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