Wednesday, March 5, 2008

1 Down, 1 to Go

"So Clinton lives to run for another seven weeks. But if you believe in the power of numbers, the candidate of inevitability is Barack Obama." - Mark Halperin, "Clinton Wins Big, But Math is Troubling," TIME, March 5, 2008.

The media has gotten everything wrong in this campaign. McCain went from the leader to dead to the leader to faltering to the nominee. Rudy went from the presumptive to the throwaway. Thompson went from the savior to....well he never really became anything. Hillary was the presumptive to the finished to the comeback kid to....the inevitable loser, apparently. Obama was the dark horse to the presumptive to the front runner to....the inevitable winner who just can't quite close the deal.

They have gotten everything wrong, so why should we listen to them now? Welcome to campaign '08. The Daily Show calls it "Indecision '08," and it really is. We were supposed to have this thing wrapped up by Super (Duper) Tuesday. Now we have another SEVEN WEEKS of campaigns and mudslinging for the Democrats, while the Republicans unite around their maverick that they are just not quite ready to trust.

This process is insane. It is too long, too drawn out. In a week, we will count off the 40th anniversary of the 1968 New Hampshire primary, where a sitting President was almost unseated by a candidate within his own party. This year, New Hampshire is two months behind us, and this campaign is 2+ years old. If you want to be President, you are never not running.

Uniters, dividers, Republicans, Democrats, independents. We just cannot make up our minds as to what we want. I have been wondering lately, what could possibly make someone think that they are the right person to lead the nation? What could make a person think that they should be President? What could possibly make someone think that they are qualified?

I'm reminded of one of my law professor's comments about New Yorkers: "I love New Yorkers because they don’t really care who wins. They just want everyone to shut up."

But looking back to that quote that I used to open this post, Maybe we have made a decision as a country, or at least the Democrats have as a party. Or, and I think this is much more likely, everyone has their head in the sand and it is stupid to predict anything until November 5, and by then, we will know who is running for President in 2012, and we get to start the process all over again.

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