So after a long hard primary season we finally have a presumptive democratic candidate. It wasn’t the cadidate I was hoping for but, I will be throwing my support behind Obama because I do believe he will be better than what we have now. I don’t know that he can bring the change that he has built his campaign upon at least not to Washington itself. I have heard that campaign talk during several campaigns and the truth is the President can not change Washington. Not that much. Can he bring change to the nation. Yes as long as he has people willing to work with him But, as for Washington overall and how things are done at times, no. That is up to the American people. Who generally like to bitch about how things are done but, then won’t elect new people to office because they are too afraid. That is a different post for another time possibly.
As for the primary season and what happens next. I never did get on the Hillary should just back out band wagon. Mainly because I never felt she should. It was close, there were super delegates and through out the contest there had been surprises and there could have been more. I don’t believe what happened with Florida and Michigan was right or fair but, at least they got some of their delegates. I also don’t believe that had things been reversed that people would have been calling for Obama to quit.
While it took longer for us to get a nominee I think it was a good thing. Yes, there were probably some negatives. However, there were definitely a lot of good things that came from it. One of those things was new voters. This is why I feel it was very good and smart of Hillary to stay in the race. For the overall good of the party those new voters needed to be counted. A lot of people got excited about voting, some for the first time and some it just renewed their desire to vote. It’s the new voters that were important. The longer the primary went on the more people registered. That is more people who can already be contacted to vote and help spread the message of the party and less time having to be spent focusing on that for the general election.
Also I think having a say in the candidate was really imporatant to those people. For the first time in a long time, I’d say at least in my lifetime, people had differences to voice with their vote in the primary. While they had similar stances on things they also had great differences that appealed to the voters. They also both had different types of core voters. Really getting those cores going now I believe will help come Novemember. Getting those people out and to the polls now will help them want to do it in the future. Voting that first time is very exciting but, it can also be very intimidating. A lot of people got out and did that with the primary so now they won’t be as intimidated during the general election.
Plus with the Florida and Michigan situation I think Hillary fighting for those delegates and pushing on when others said she should quit shows her desire to have every vote count. That will help down the road. She wanted everyone to have a chance to vote in the primary and she saw that pledge through to the very end. No on could ever convince me that, that is a bad thing.
Now the challenge is just to keep people motivated. The entire party has to work to make sure that those who were pulling so hard for Hillary will still vote and still vote for the democratic ticket. Obama is going to have to accept that some of the things Hillary was out there saying really mean something. It struck at the fabric of the country. He needs her ideas and influence. People still love the Clinton’s and if they believe we can get back some of the prosperity and other things we had under Bill then they will vote for Obama.
