After the primaries, all is forgiven [View All]

[WillyBrandt]

I don't care whatever any of the candidates do. After the primaries, I resolve to hold no grudges, to think of old wounds inflicted by Clark opponents, or hold reservations about the winner. It's politics, and shit will be slung. You know, these guys all really want to be President, and are all willing to go a bit far do so. No illusions.

There's a bit of psychological gymnasitics involved in thinking that way, but so it goes. I am sufficiently impressed by all four of the candidates, that I'll have no issues changing (or keeping!) my Clark bumpersticker after the primaries.

It's funny. Though Clark's prospects have--for now--dropped a bit after rising for weeks, I feel better about the outcome in November than I ever have. I'm more sympathetic towards all of them than I ever was. And, as the Horse has pointed out, they are not "seven dwarves" who could never usurp Bush: they are four extremely strong contenders with their own strengths and weaknesses.

One more thing. This four-man horse race actually seems to me to be a better outcome for the Party than a two-man one, or an early coronation. It keeps the GOP from concentrating their fire, even while all of the candidates attack Bush relentlessly. (They have one machine gun shooting in four directions; we have four machines guns shooting in one direction. Mostly.) It keeps all of the candidates in the media eye. Also, it gives all of the candidates a chance to recover from missteps and gaffes.

This four-man dynamic will become, I think, formalized with the (I predict, I hope) withdrawal of Lieberman after New Hampshire. We might actually get a bit of policy discussion in that context, and we'll certainly get an enormous amount of airtime.

No amount of advertising could have gotten us this kind of constant publicity. Despite the whorish media, everything interesting politically is happening in the Democratic party.

So, I can't predict the future. I don't know who will win. But I'm optimistic about the contours of what's upcoming: cross-candidate supporter sympathy; infinite media exposure; a (relatively clean) four-man race; nothing doing on the GOP side; four great candidates; and a Party ready to be unified in kicking out the thieves who have hijacked our government.

The needs of the nation are great, but the commanders of the State are so small. We'll kick them out soon enough. Don't worry.