Obama pulls ahead on Pollster’s poll of polls for the first time.
The sniping between the Obama and Clinton is definitely getting a bit pitched. But then, the hard right and libertarians seriously dislike McCain. So there’s plenty of internal squabbling in both parties now. Will both parties unite behind whoever their candidate ends up being? Probably. But predictions and hopes that the general campaign won’t be a mud-slinging barrage of negative attack ads will prove illusory.
I expect this campaign will see some new (probably temporary) realignments, as some of the Right prefers Obama to McCain– and many Dems prefer McCain to Clinton. And I expect some in the heartland, though Dems, won’t vote for a black candidate.
Both parties are squabbling, and cracks are showing. But will the internal hatred be enough to split them? I doubt it. The one thing all the party faithful love more than hating each other is their monopoly on power. In the end, though GOPs vote Dem and vice versa, they won’t vote for anyone outside the family.
Let’s hope somehow real change comes to the US and the gridlock and endless sniping ends.
One thing this election season has highlighted, which I had never been aware of before, is the absolute lock the Parties have on the primary system. Thus the two major candidates, whatever their beliefs, are loyal to their party first, and the party system second.
How do we get a viable candidate whose loyalty is to we the people?
The primaries should be on just a straight vote of the people. No bizarre caucuses. No winner takes all. And no superdelegates – who incidentally are generally politicians currently in office who can receive campaign contributions from those same presidential candidates. How corrupt is that?
The general election needs to be on a straight vote too. No winner takes all the electoral votes. If you get 51% of the vote you get 51% of the delegates. Then we’d have more of an actual democracy.