Finally!

As the Democratic primary, in my opinion, is coming to an end I would like to look at what I think came of it both positive and negative. For the sake of a reasonably sized post I will limit myself to three points a side.

The positive:

The unusually long race, which will likely continue through the next set of states, helped build a solid Democratic network in states that may not have had one. Chairman Dean’s 50 state strategy, in my opinion, is a good one and this fostered growth that would have taken 2 or 3 election cycles to complete. Indiana turned its legislature blue during the 2006 election cycle; I would have to believe that getting nationwide publicity and drawing huge crowds of voters to the polls will have a positive effect come November and may end up bringing Indiana into play. Many states have solidified their grassroots campaign efforts with the long and exciting primary.


Since it appears that Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee I would argue that it taught the DNC and the Obama campaign what type and how fierce the tactics will be going forward to November. I think that Obama may have been tested enough to now weather the onslaught from the right-wing slime machine.


Believe it or not there were a couple good things that came from the Rev. Wright story. The first was that the speech that Obama delivered regarding race was special. That speech may be something referenced in history classes years from now. The second, while not as Impressive valuable anyway, was that it dispelled in mass the lies the right wing had been pushing about Obama being Muslim. This story may have also been beat to death by the media spin cycle (hopefully).

The negative:

I now have a strong DISlike for someone that I previously thought very highly of. The absurd negative campaigning and Rove like rhetoric that came from Hilary Clinton greatly disappointed me. I can only assume that if she hangs on much longer actually believing that she can win; the destructive style of her recent campaign will only make the campaign more difficult for Obama in the fall.

Hilary Clinton practically drew up the playbook for the right wing. This ties in to both a good and bad. As I mentioned before at least the Obama campaign will know what to expect; and the GOP has had time to study what has worked and what has failed while comfortably raising money.

As much as someone like me loves the enormous amount of political coverage I am also aware from an absurd amount of phone bank and door-to-door experience that this heavy saturation can cause an indifferent electorate. The last thing we need in this election is people not wanting to pay attention. I would point to the last two presidential elections as my case in point; God forbid we elect another president based on who you would like to have a beer with!