Yet ANOTHER reason we need to institute a national primary

Yes, Barack Obama is an eloquent and charismatic speaker, and I admit I had goosebumps when I watched his speech at the 2004 DNC convention. At that time I said I thought I had watched a future presidential contender for the 2012 or 2016 elections. As impressed and moved as I was then, I am not naive enough now to think that a couple of years in the Senate is enough for Obama to show he can actually accomplish the change he keeps saying he wants to accomplish (the fact he's spent much of his time in office running for POTUS doesn't make a case for him being a "doer" instead of a talker). Additionally, during his run for POTUS he's done quite a bit of pandering (some of it with questionable timing) that doesn't sit well with me.

It is, however, abundantly clear that the mass media has become deeply infatuated with Prince Charming dubbed Obama the candidate and appears to have absolutely no regard for the views of those whose states still haven't voted. Why should they care? I mean, after all, the DNC and Barack Obama are perfectly content to ignore the voices of Democrats in Michigan and Florida (in all fairness, in such a close election, I'm sure Obama would care if those states had voted for him). Heck, Jonathan Alter from Newsweek thinks Clinton should just crown Obama herself drop out now and get out of Barry's way already



As a Democrat and as an American, I resent all of this. The DNC is happily planning to ignore certain voters in much the same way as voters were ignored in the 2000 elections. That election lead us to an unfortunate and unnecessary war that further destabilized an unstable region, left us unable & unprepared to address more significant potential threats elsewhere, and is a constant reminder of the damage we did to our own country over Viet Nam. It also left this country on the verge of a precipitous fall into the dark ages at the behest of those who believe that government and religion should be the same (provided it's their religion that is the government).

The current primary conditions is a phased system that does nothing but empower (and embolden) a two party system, marginalizes those who vote for a candidate who must drop out because s/he doesn't win critical early primaries, weights the votes of citizens based solely on their residence and, worst of all, does nothing to ensure legitimate ideas are thoroughly evaluated. The DNC and the phased primary system have screwed us over and it's high time we have an major overhaul of our election system. In the meantime, I hope to G-d that the candidates can put egos aside and work together to actually make the positive changes we need and undo the damage of Nero W.


Tags: Barack Obama Hillary Clinton politics primaries elections democrats DNC media Jonathan Alter Dan Abrams

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