West Virginia

I have now come full circle in my feelings about the democratic primary. Starting out I was an ardent Clinton supporter but have been turned off in the past week by the media's insistence on emphasizing racial divisions and giving off the impression that Obama cannot win because of a supposed lack of appeal to "white" voters. The New York Times interpreted the results of a poll showing that over half of the voters in the primary would be "dissastisfied" if Obama were to be chosen as the democratic nominee to indicate "troubling" signs for Obama's canidacy. What kind of logical sense does this conclusion make? Of course Clinton supporters are going to be dissatisfied if Obama wins, they are supporting his rival. It is fruitless to try to project primary results onto the general election. Why would mass amounts of Clinton supporters switch their allegiance from a candidate who holds many of her views and values to the John McCain, a man who has (with the exception of his stance on climate change) fallen lockstop into line with the failed Bush policies.

Either candidate is going to defeat John McCain easily. The important thing is not that there are divisions within the democratice party over which candidate should be the nominee but the fact that the party base has been so invigorated. It cannot be emphasized enough how significant it is that the democratic primary in Florida garnered more voter participation despite the fact that the state's delegates were not being seated. The heated divisions that have arisen between Clinton and Obama supporters is a sign of strength. The party base cares enough to vote in large numbers and formulate strong opinions. Any loses that are incurred because one candidate or another comes ahead will be more than compensated for by the large numbers of people that the primary have inspired.

Finally, what is left for the party to do? I think the calls for Clinton to concede are premature and unneccessary. She poured her heart into this campaign and deserves the right to see it through. In addition, extending the primary to June 3rd gives each candidate the chance to really campaign and have their platform heard in every single state, a fact which can only help the democratic nominee in the fall. After June 3rd, Clinton should step down and the the party should coelesce behind Obama. I believe the best course would then be for Obama to choose Clinton as his running mate, given the fact that she has built up so much support in key states. But most of all, the insinuations that Obama cannot win because he cannot win support from whites has to stop and more importantly, the democratic party absolutely cannot fail to nominate Obama because of these fears. What does it say if we give into the forces of ignorance and cowardice? Obama has proven that he can succeed time and time again in a national election. Stop the fear-mongering and lets put Obama in the Whitehouse!!!