Not The Oval I Was Expecting To Blacken

I find myself holding and examining my Washington state Primary Election Ballot with considerably more interest and hope than I would have anticipated feeling at this point in this election cycle. I had previously conceived and written of a plan to vote for Ron Paul in the Republican primary (see The Complex Calculus of One Man's Vote). I find that I can't do that.

One thing that many people I respect have agreed on is that what will be needed most in the next President is someone who can work across party and ideological lines to actually get the People's business done, something that just is Not generally happening in the current Administration. And I had been So afraid that the Terry McAwful wing of the Hackocracy was gonna succeed in pushing Hillary, the only Demo who could Lose in November on an Inveitablity path to the ticket, and am thrilled that Obama has staged a decisive Saturday Sweeps across a very diverse bunch of states and has the wind at his back going into the next rounds. And it
begins to look to me as though we may be shaping up to a November choice of Obama vs McCain, Either of whom is a zillion times more likely than any of the other choices in their respective parties to be able to unify the country and work with both sides to get things done.

Which brings me back to my Washington Primary ballot and my decision to blacken a different oval than the one I had decided upon back in October when I was trying to generate some political discussion and started a Ron Paul for President group, just to generate some discussion. And I had thought I would support a long shot candidate as a gesture to his onine supporters who all seemed new to political involvement and genuinely moved by their candidate to become actively involved in the political process, which I quite applaud, even while having great reservations about their candidate and being unpersuaded by their arguments in his favor.

Obama has secured two thirds of Washington's delegates to the Democratic National Convention and party officials have cleary announced that the upcoming primary election will NOT count for any delegates. Meanwhile McCain is leading Huckabee by a whisker and is expected to carry the state but the 18 delegates allocated by the caucus are split among four candidates, including Romney who has already dropped out of the race. The results of the Republican primary will be used to allocate 19 additional delegates and a win for McCain could be critical to his success.

And so with an eye towards a new President who can work with both sides and get things done, I have darkened the oval next to Sen. John McCain--R on my Republican primary ballot. I will drop it off at city hall on my way to work once they are open to receive them next week. And will be anxiously continuing to follow the results. And I will do so, feeling much more hopeful about the future than I had expected to feel at this point.

The Corpse Is Still Breathing

To hear the talk around the political blogosphere today you'd think that Barrack Obama had dropped out of the Presidential race and conceded the nomination to Hillary. The postmortems are thick on the ground though a quick check of the Obama 08 site suggests that the campaign is still in business.

Perhaps today's best post comes from blogger Kyle E. Moore on the blog Comments from Left Field. Why Obama Won't Win is an in-depth analysis of the Democratic Presidential Primary. Moore argues that Obama's gift for seeking consensus, finding middle ground and finding ways to work with political opponents would make him an ideal general election candidate with an excellent chance of beating any of the Republicans in November. Unfortunately, Moore also believes that Barrack has zero percent chance of getting the nomination since the partisans who vote in Democratic primaries are furious after 7 years of being ignored and will be hungry for red meat and not conciliation. I honestly don't know how much credence to give this theory, but if Moore is correct Obama is toast.

Blogger Talk Left is also quite pessimistic about Obama, though for very different reasons. The Problem With Obama, according to this blogger is that he is not a fighter. He

refuses to fight for Democratic and progressive values. He holds them of course. But he does not fight for them. He believes in finding "common ground" and, in the process, simply does not fight. He does not work to persuade the persuadable. As a politician fighting for issues, he fails (while perhaps succeeding in burnishing his own image.) If you are committed to Obama, you can be pleased with his political style. If you are committed to Democratic and progressive values, I think you can not be satisfied.

That's a pretty strong condemnation and one I find hard to rebut. And finally, just one more example of today's eulogizing for Barrack, Mike Lux in an excellent diary at Open Left argues the problem with the campaign is that a unique candidate with a great message and new campaigning style is being badly managed by the same old hapless Democratic campaign managers who are So intently running the same old hapless Democratic campaign that they completely fail to utilize their candidate's assets and abilities.

I think I would agree with Lux and Talk Left that Obama desperately needs better management and a campaign that comes out swinging against Hillary, Inc. But I fear that Mr. Moore's analysis is the one that will prevail-- Barrack is just too conciliatory to win the Democratic primary this time out.