A good horse race has a lot of horses in it. Big American races usually have between eight and fourteen runners. Too few, and the race is too hard on the horses, too many, and there's too much traffic. Having a number of horses in a race means that horse and jockey are tested in several ways -- not only speed and stamina, but intelligence, strategy, and luck. There are horses who are not so fast who are able to stare down other horses and intimidate them. There are horses that take a while to get going who run down the quicker ones. There are horses who love to be out in front of the pack, and on a good day run away from everyone. There are jockeys, like the late Willie Shoemaker, who can take a horse through a tiny opening almost before he can consciously perceive it. A good race tests many aspects of horse and jockey, and then, in the end, often awards the victory to the one who managed to avoid bad luck.
What no owner or trainer wants is a match race -- that is a race between two great horses in which they compete only against one another. The reason for this is that great horses are highly competitive, and in a match race one or the other of them can be run, literally, to death, as happened to the great filly Ruffian in 1975. Even after Ruffian broke the sesamoid bones in her foot 3/8s of a mile into the race, she ran as hard as she could for another fifty yards, breaking the hearts of everyone who saw the race.
One of the virtues of the primary electoral system is that in good years, it avoids the problems of the match race. The candidates' competitiveness is dissipated by the large field, and the candidates' positions influence each other. Ideally, what comes out of the primaries is more than the sum of all the positions going in. If I like this from candidate A and that from candidate B and something else from candidates C and D, I can give my money and support and suggestions to more than one of them, and see them, together, come up with a consensus that represents most of the party. As each amasses his or her their delegates, he or she also learns something. Positions can't harden because there will be -- guess what -- horsetrading at the end.
Unfortunately, what we see among the Democrats now is what happens when the fans start wanting a match race and the owners start talking about giving it to them. Clinton is pressing Obama and Obama is pressing Clinton. Both of them are playing their various "cards" and the result is not productive but destructive. Only two primaries so far and we already see it -- each day brings news of a more intense and meaner-spirited rivalry that could easily create permanent bad blood between the two candidates and their supporters. It will certainly supply the Republicans with reams of material to employ once the presidential campaign gets underway. Every match race is a zero-sum and dangerous game. Ever heard the words "Pyrrhic victory", as in "I won the battle but my entire army was destroyed"? Obama and Clinton need to step back and take some time off, and their supporters need to go to their various corners, too. The enemy is watching.
The result isn't a match race between two great competitors running each other down with brilliant arguments and drive. It's a made-for-TV fake. It's also a shame. It's also dull. I'm sick of the 3 and hoping for a brokered convention rescue by Al Gore.
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You make it now
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It's time that you won
Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You make it now
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It’s time you won
Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You make it now
Falling slowly sing your melody
I'll sing along
With apologies to Glen Hansard
Don't let the media oligarchy choose the president!
NBC Debates Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/nbc_debates.php
Since the top two horses are biting and kicking each other,
Maybe it's time to vote for Kucinich!
Strength through PEACE!
Don't let the media oligarchy choose the president!
NBC Debates Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/nbc_debates.php
The swiftboating Bush/Rove type campaign behavior started shortly after the Clinton defeat at the Iowa cauceses when it looked like they would be embarrassed in New Hampshire as well.
Clinton said the were going to go negative, and the mud started to fly.
A targeted mass-mailing on abortion rights they new was false was sent out. Former President Clinton ascribed comments to Obama regarding Iraq he knew were false.
Now she makes some comments about Obama being an "empty suit" by using Dr. King. Clinton supporters and bloggers call on her to clarify, and this is magically turned into Obama distorting what she said. I've got no problem with what she said, just that she tried the Bush/Rove tactic of claiming Obama made statements about what she said when he did not.
The Obama campaign has now set up a war room similar to the one set up by Bill Clinton in 1992 -- and who can blame them. Bill and Hillary are using the same tactics as Bush 41 and Bush/Rove.
Ironically, the "empty suit" argument was used on Bill Clinton by Bush41 as well.
The truth is that the greatness of these two horses is a media fabrication, helped along by the fiction that they are the only two candidates in the race.
And neither one is particularly competitive.
Hillary tried to do away with her competition through arm-twisting and mythologizing about her inevetability.
Obama, in his first race for a safe Illinois state senate, successfully sued to have all four of his primary opponents' names removed from the ballot. Asked whether the district's primary voters were well served by having only one candidate on the ballot, he smiled and said: "I think they ended up with a very good state senator."
He even owes his senatae seat to the implosion of his primary and general election opponents.
On a level playing field, er, racetrack, John Edwards (whom his wife calls the Seabiscuit of this race) would have outpaced these two show horses long ago. I say we put them out to pasture and let the real racehorse run.
You have to say most of the scum comes from the Clinton campaign -- some from H, some from B, and some from lesser surrogates. What's amazing is how how poorly the Clinton campaign is at sliming. They used to be much better at it. What happened?
My favorite was when Bob Kerry referred to Obama's drug use not long after Mark Penn got nailed for the same thing and the campaign denied responsibility saying, "Well, that's just wacky old Bob Kerry. You never know what he's going to say." Bob Kerry?!
They're still doing it and denying it too. First with Shaheen and most lately with Bob (more money and less conscience than Shug Knight) Johnson.
She's done better on the victimization front though. Taking Obama's "You're likeable enough, Hillary" as an insult was beautiful. It was intended as a dry, understated compliment -- and yet, even in context the press still plays it as a turning point moment.
Returning to MLK and Bob Johnson, it's curious and off-putting to see the Clintons' sense of entitlement when it comes to the support of black voters. Her campaign is determined to create a "who's blacker" distinction -- and it's one she can only lose. So far though Obama has been very circumspect in his use of race. That's a big part of his appeal, too.
So far though, I don't see anything that will leave lasting scars. At least not between those two and the masses of their supporters.
In the context of what passes for "normal" in American politics both campaigns have been fairly clean. Maybe not Kerry v Edwards or Gore v Bradley clean, but those were exceptional rather than normative races. Besides, neither was ever really competitive. Considering that Clinton v Obama is VERY tight, it's a reasonably clean contest.
BDL
Now we have another set of "losers" out there fighting while the Republicans speak simply scaring us to death witheir constant talk of the "boogeyman" at the door, or the "homersexuals" moving in next door with their evil life style. All the time the Democrat fight---and they lose!!!!
Likewise, those of us on the left are hoping to see the republicans destroy each other in the primaries.
What ever happened to the important issues?