from Benjamin Barber at the HuffPost
The present Obama/Clinton battle is normal by the standards of our country. Barber does a great job of explaining why (wish I could copy the whole thing here).
To go back to our founding fathers
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.
He discusses numerous additional examples (all excellent) and then gives us
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”?
He then addresses how it will all end. And on this I think he nails it
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.
Fellow Dems, enjoy the priamry. It’s normal and shows we have a strong vibrant party. And while John McCain rests and gets fat and lazy, we have two candidates who every day are gaining additional knowledge and skill in running for president.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
BY: 2Jung2Die
IN: Monday Open Thread
BY: Thorntonite
IN: Jeff Hurd Exercises Cave-In Option On Medicaid Cuts
BY: kwtree
IN: Monday Open Thread
BY: joe_burly
IN: Jeff Hurd Exercises Cave-In Option On Medicaid Cuts
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: Monday Open Thread
BY: joe_burly
IN: Monday Open Thread
BY: harrydoby
IN: Monday Open Thread
BY: 2Jung2Die
IN: Monday Open Thread
BY: DavidThi808
IN: Monday Open Thread
BY: DavidThi808
IN: Monday Open Thread
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!
Nice post, David. Kind of brings it all back into focus. I think we’ll all be pleased by how the party comes together to elect the Primary Survivor. I’ve been watching John Adams, also. This one might be HBO’s best effort yet, although Band of Brothers is a tough act to top.
Fall in love during the primary, fall in line for the general…
I never heard that one!
After all our vitriol here, it might come down to that, GB. I’ll keep it in (the back of my) mind.
We tend to think that everyone pretty much just got along with some minor polishing needed. NOT!
Once upon a time newspapers, reflecting their ownerships, were extrememely partisan and uncivil. Political cartoons have shown an opponent eating babies, they fomented great fear of (pick one or more)slaves, freed slaves, Irish, Italians, Mexicans, etc.
Political opponents called each other terrible names without the use of curse words.
But they didn’t have a four year primary!
Lincoln was running for president the day his senate race ended. As were Seward & Chase.
However, I’m sure it was MUCH more low key, even a year out.
Now every little thing uttered ends up on YouTube within the hour…It makes it easy to stay involved.
Those Lincoln-Douglas speeches? They would be 3 hours by one, 3 hours by the other, then a ½ hour rebuttal by each. So going to listen was an 8 hour committment. Try to get that today.
And why do we have verbatium transcripts of those speechaes today? Because they were taken down to send to most newspapers in the country to be reprinted – because it was very popular news.
So more intermittent than today but a lot more content when you did get info.
It’s a very important job and so it has held interest year round for most of our history.
Make sure you get cash in advance!
She understands the American family perfectly, bills up to their eyeballs.
Go-go gadget Pro-Economy!
That her campaign manager worked for a subprime lender:
This is one thing in particular that has really bothered me about Hillary’s campaign; the people around her.