If you've been watching the John Adams chronicles on HBO, you know that the birth of the young American Republic was accompanied by enough controversy, bitterness, infighting and rage to sink the project before it ever got off the ground. If it hadn't been for the fact that democracy, rough and tough as it was, produced the right outcome.
There was enough ideological antipathy between the cousins Sam (radical) and John (prudent conservative) Adams to make one wonder how Massachusetts got its act together -- but it got its act together and led the nation to independence.
Ben Franklin and John Adams were at cross purposes in Paris, where they were courting French military support for the war against the British, to a point where it seemed France might bow out. But it didn't, because democracy, messy as it was, worked.
Some even hoped (feared) George Washington would be an American regent rather than the first president, and the presidential campaign of Thomas Jefferson in 1800 for the presidency was greeted with cries of 'traitor' and 'Jacobin, ' making today's swift-boating techniques look like child's-play.
Except that Washington became president not king, and the dour Adams and the "traitor" Jefferson followed him in the presidency.
I dwell on this melancholy side of the American founding because, despite the shenanigans and hi-jinks, maybe even because of them, the country got born, the Bill of Rights was ratified, and here we are today... well, still having at one another in the name of democracy.
So I say "pshaw!" to those who think it's time for Hillary to bow out when her prospects in Pennsylvania are excellent, or for Obama to accept the vice-presidency even though he's got a clearer road to victory than Hillary, or for Howard Dean or Al Gore to step in a declare a winner and hope the superdelegates will follow suit though there are still millions of Americans who haven't yet voted in their primaries.
Let the democratic process run its course. Is the primary season too long? Much too long! Is the contest between Obama and Clinton too hot? Much too hot, yes, but that's the point: the presidency is at stake, and it is only the ambitious who can stay the course (witness the fate of the lethargic Fred Thompson). Do you really expect Hillary to say "After you, kind sir"? or Obama to respond "You first Madam"?
Nervous Democrats fearful they will never get back to the White House want peace now, a release from the tension, move on to the 'big one' with McCain. Sorry, but it's not going to happen. And that will be just fine. Because when a winner does emerge, after Pennsylvania, or Puerto Rico, or maybe at the end of August on the last day of the Democratic Convention in Denver, Democrats will get over licking their wounds pretty quick in order to start licking their chops in anticipation of knocking off McCain. And then things will really get down and dirty -- just as they have in every election for the past 225 years.
Don't believe those 'here-today-gone-tomorrow' poll figures showing this many Clintonites won't vote for Obama and that many Obamite won't vote for Clinton. It's all just part of the dogfight, bluffing by some (elect our candidate or else!), sulking by others (my candidate loses and I'm gonna take my marbles and go home). But March is one thing, November is another.
Let democracy run its course. As Churchill said, it's the worst of all possible forms of government... except for all the other forms. Oh, and by the way -- your heard it here first -- the Hillary-Sturm and Obama-Drang notwithstanding, the Democrats WILL win -- presidency, House and Senate. For which we will all owe thanks to George Bush.
Can we expect Sen. Obama to ask Sen. McCain to do likewise in the fall in the interests of "bringing people together"? Don't want to divide people, afterall, right?
Sen. Obama's "change we can believe it" seems to be in reality just more of the same old thing: weakness. The Obama campaign epitomizes the most serious disease in the Democratic Party, as evidenced most recently by the weakling majority in Congress, which is spinelessness, and the fear of the fight. But love her or hate her, no one can question Sen. Clinton's ability or willingness to take on anyone.
We need that willingness and ability in our eventual nominee to fight hard for people, regardless of how tough it gets. And if Sen. Obama doesn't feel he's up to it, as it increasingly seems is the case, then maybe it's time for him to "bow out," stop dividing the party, and get behind the woman who's ready and willing to fight the right wing for the good of regular working people.
Too much credence has been given for far too long now to professional theorists. Your use of "Pshaw" in commentary indicates just how outdated and out of touch your ideas are with what's actually happening on the ground in this primary. Neither Adams or Jefferson ever praised King George to the detriment of the other as the Clintons repeatedly praise Senator McCain. The founding fathers spin in their graves at your comparisons as well as your delusions of what constitutes effective and meaningful political discourse.
We agree Hillary is no John Adams; too selfish. But I beg to differ about Obama. Listen carefully to his speech in Philadelphia, and you will hear a person of great creative and emotional intelligence that puts him in a category of leader we have not seen for some time, nor will likely see for a very long time if we blow it and end up with McCain or a McClinton. And I agree we Boomers have definitely disappointed. But you have to realize that Boomers were deeply jaded by the sixties assassinations. You were probably too young to fully grasp the impact of that. No generation is perfect, not even the "greatest." One of Obama's strengths is that he has reawakened the sense of the possible, giving Boomers a second chance and a second wind, reconnecting them with the today's youth. For your generation, the challenge will be to recognize YOUR weakness, your source of jadedness before it is too late.
'Til then, surf's up at Obama's There's a set coming in, sun coming up...lining up nicely. I'll take the left, you take the right, we'll meet on solid American soil and put this country back together.
Best time period in my 69 years!
Reagan ruined all that!
I crashed & burned with the '87 market crash, the '90 recession,
and the hostile financial takeover by the 40 somethings!
( ALL THE 60 something, CEO'S were replaced by 40 somethings who demanded those golden parachutes! ) Then a lot of employees were downsized laid off , in favor of the younger.
( They had been left behind in school so didn't pose as much of a threat!)
Both can become major contributors to America's history but they will only be able to get to work once this campaign is over.
Not to mention the Supreme Court. Everyone who votes in November - PLEASE remember the Supreme Court!