2008 Woodie Awards
Long race for nomination serves to fragment Democratic party
Christina Kiser
Issue date: 4/29/08 Section: Opinion
Last Tuesday, Hillary Clinton won the Pennsylvania Democratic primary by a margin of about 10 points. She also says she's ahead in the popular vote, counting her ceremonial wins in Michigan and Florida, two states who were stripped of their delegates because they moved their primaries too early.
Barack Obama is still ahead in delegates, though. And what about the superdelegates? Who will get all those? And the endorsements -- what do they all mean for the candidates?
At this point, all I want to know is when it will all be over.
We've never seen an election like this in our lifetimes. The 2000 election was, of course, a debacle all its own, but a debacle that didn't start until after the ballots were counted. I'm already election-weary and we're not even at the convention yet (the Democratic convention, by the way, will be August 25-28 in Denver).
With each primary I wonder, will this be the one? Will we know tomorrow morning who it is? And with each primary, either he or she wins, and the next day the campaigning begins again in earnest, with more mudslinging and attacks on voting records and the talking heads on TV spinning.
Eventually, of course, there will be a nominee, whether that nominee is decisively chosen by voters or eked out in a close superdelegate race. But the longer the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination goes on, the more I think it hurts the unity of the party.
As they stand right now, Clinton and Obama appeal to different segments of the Democratic Party. Clinton's supporters tend to be older, blue-collar, female and white (with some exceptions). Obama's supporters, in turn, tend to be younger, white-collar, male and drawn from the ranks of minorities (again with some notable exceptions -- poor and working-class blacks and white college students). The longer the race for the nomination continues, the harder it's going to be to reconcile and unite those two separate segments of the Democratic voting bloc.
Barack Obama is still ahead in delegates, though. And what about the superdelegates? Who will get all those? And the endorsements -- what do they all mean for the candidates?
At this point, all I want to know is when it will all be over.
We've never seen an election like this in our lifetimes. The 2000 election was, of course, a debacle all its own, but a debacle that didn't start until after the ballots were counted. I'm already election-weary and we're not even at the convention yet (the Democratic convention, by the way, will be August 25-28 in Denver).
With each primary I wonder, will this be the one? Will we know tomorrow morning who it is? And with each primary, either he or she wins, and the next day the campaigning begins again in earnest, with more mudslinging and attacks on voting records and the talking heads on TV spinning.
Eventually, of course, there will be a nominee, whether that nominee is decisively chosen by voters or eked out in a close superdelegate race. But the longer the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination goes on, the more I think it hurts the unity of the party.
As they stand right now, Clinton and Obama appeal to different segments of the Democratic Party. Clinton's supporters tend to be older, blue-collar, female and white (with some exceptions). Obama's supporters, in turn, tend to be younger, white-collar, male and drawn from the ranks of minorities (again with some notable exceptions -- poor and working-class blacks and white college students). The longer the race for the nomination continues, the harder it's going to be to reconcile and unite those two separate segments of the Democratic voting bloc.
Be the first to comment on this story