A Wild Race
HRC won last night. She beat Obama by 3% (7,500 votes) in NH. Obama won Iowa by 7% (16,500 votes). The delegate count is now Obama (25), HRC (24), and Edwards (18).
A few thoughts:
- A close race is good for democracy. It will highlight issues of concern and raise awareness.
- The whiteness of Iowa and NH is blinding. Considering about 20% of democrats are African-American, that there were two few non-whites to register on the exit polls in NH is staggering.
- For some reason HRC coming from tremendous wealth, power, and prestige and marrying a Rhodes Scholar Yale Law-type turned president just makes her uberinsiderish campaign seem totally unhistorical. Not necessarily bad, perhaps we need someone with a masterful understanding of Washington who can manipulate the system to good ends. In contrast Obama, who became a community organizer after law school seems extremely historical and fresh.
- If HRC and Obama stay neck-in-neck we may see Edwards' pledged delegates decide the winner. That would be extremely dramatic but not necessarily democratic. Where is instant runoff voting when we need it.
posted by ZT @ 1/09/2008
4 Comments
4 Comments:
I love Cuomo's line which Hillary has been quoting - Campaigning is poetry, governing is prose.
Seems kind of depressing to run as the prose/prosaic candidate. I'm definitely excited about the poetry. Obama is a masterful orator. After 8 years of mangled English, what a wonderful treat.
What do you mean by "historical" and "unhistorical"?
i meant would offer a moment of substantial historical notability because of a stark break with the way things have usually been--an exciting first.
Barack is no rube from the outside. Let's take a look using your own analysis:
He didn't go to some community college or Ag school. He did his undergraduate work at an Ivy League School --- Columbia.
He didn't go to some third rate law school. He went to Harvard and was President of the Law Review, arguably a lot more inside than Hillary on both counts.
He married a future Vice President of University of Chicago Hospitals.
He did become a "community organizer" out of law school, but he quickly joined a prestigious, if not large, law firm, and the faculty at the Law School of the University of Chicago.
He ran, successfully for the state senate, and lost a race for Congress. He then won a race for the U.S. Senate, by an overwhelming majority, with the backing of the Democratic Party and Mayor Richard J. Daley.
He was given a keynote address at the 2004 Democratic convention, and gave a sensational speech.
His campaign manager, David Axelrod is a very well connected insider, probably the best known political consultant in Illinois. (Very well connected to the Democratic Party locally and nationally, and to the aforesaid Mayor of the City of Chicago.
This is not to say that Barack is a bad guy, or that I wouldn't work and vote for him with enthusiasm and a clear conscionce. But don't give me this "outsider" thing. Hillary may have more contacts having been around a long time and with a former President Husband. But if his "outsider" status is necessary for you, you'll have to find another candidate. (Although I don't know who. Kucinich?suvhnl
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