Not About Seattle

This is an exciting moment in American Political History. We have recently entered the final year of the hated GW Bush’s reign, and we are in the midst of the “primary” fight to succeed him. Today, the Saturday before the ’08 Super Tuesday” primary – which somehow drifted from March to February – We got Billary (Hillary + loudmouth Bill) and Obama in a dead heat, two weeks after he blew her out in the South Carolina primary. On the Republican side we got the maverick, sorta centrist John McCain on an apparent glidepath to the nomination (Romney is nipping at his heels but is behind in the polls, and just can’t seem break out of robo-candidate form.)

This Republican situation recently produced an interesting vignette: the three “leading” “moderate” Republicans in the Country, on a podium, basking in the possibility of a Re-imagining of the Right. There they were: Guiliani and McCain, with Schwarzenegger bragging about the ability to “cross the isle”. Are these guys going to get creamed by a betrayed and outraged Republican “values” voter bloc? If Romney sinks as expected, what will McCain owe the “Religious Right?” The movement seems to have imploded of it’s own choice. Then again, perhaps I am jumping the gun in eulogizing the Intolerant Right.

The Dems are seemingly strong, Hillary and Obama having their various strengths and weaknesses, all adding to roughly the same level of promise for the General Election. (In fact, one must assume that it is this very strength that has led Republican primary voters to go to the middle.) On the other hand things could play out very differently for the two candidates. Maxine Waters, the firebrand (Black) California Congresswomen just endorsed Hillary. She apparently said that “we don’t need more hope, we need help” (or words to that effect). This epitomizes the concerns about Obama. Can he really steer the ship of State? …through the shoals of Congressional hardball? Could he Deliver the Goods? It’s just very interesting to wonder whether these Democratic primary voters (with whom we in WA are not) will choose to bolster Obama, or anoint Hillary. Or perhaps they are divided – like me.