Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know that Hillary Clinton won in PA yesterday. I’ll repeat what I said earlier, that I don’t see how this ends before the convention. At this point, I beginning to doubt that this ends well for the Democrats in November.
While I think the country is ready for a Democratic administration, and still leans that way, this nomination fight has bloodied both candidates. With Obama now going negative as well, this race will hurt the eventual nominee regardless of who is the winner. At the very least, it has taken Obama off message, and taken the wind out of a lot of supporters. Those of my friends and co-workers that are Obama supporters have lost a lot of the excitement of the early days. For me, at least, the biggest reason has been the wearying nature of this nomination fight. Each non-decisive primary has marked the start of an even more negative campaign. Nothing takes enthusiasm out of supporters than constant bombardment of the candidate, especially from admired figures within the same party.
I also find it frustrating because the system is clearly just completely messed up here. If we went with a winner take all system like the Republicans, Clinton would have the nomination sewed up already. If we went with a simple majority vote/delegate count, Obama would have this locked up. Instead, we have super delegates and proportional apportionment, the worst of both worlds when the party fields two strong candidates.
Finally, after the last few weeks, I’m pretty angry with the Clinton campaign. I know some of you think this is unfair, but this is how I feel. I’m tired of them, and I’m tired of Mark Penn, of Howard Wolfson, and of the nasty, dishonest, Rovian campaigning they’ve been running. I will vote for her if she somehow convinces enough super delegates to support her and wins the nomination, but I won’t enjoy it. She and her campaign have taken all the enjoyment out of what should’ve been a good election year.
I realize it’s silly to worry about “enjoying” the campaign, but it has real effects for me. I certainly won’t volunteer, and I’m unlikely to give her money. Donating to political campaigns annoys my wife (we have different opinions on the role of money in politics), and I’m not willing to annoy her for Hillary Clinton. Perhaps I’ll regret saying this later, but right now, I’m just tired of the whole damn thing, and I can’t imagine what this will feel like in June when the last primary results come through and it’s STILL not resolved.
I also suspect, after reading TalkLeft, that there are Clinton supporters who feel the same way about Obama. And that’s why I think we’re all f’d come November. Four more years of Bush-lite will drive us from crisis to crisis. That should be fun.
(and a clarification on the headline… no more full length posts. I may pass on articles, but I think I’m going to reduce that even further. I really just don’t care anymore.)
