Not the sexiest title, eh? But during the Democratic primaries, a lot of pundits debated breathlessly back and forth whether the prolonged duel between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would produce a net-positive or net-negative for the ultimate nominee. At the time, I scoffed at the suggestion that ANY primary season going beyond February 5th was good for the party and thought it would lead to disastrous consequences for the general campaign, weakening the eventual victor.
Boy, was I wrong. Follow me below the fold...
Let's examine here the pros and cons as we go into the final stretch of what now seems an assured (knock on wood) Obama victory on November 4th.
As we all know, the Democratic primary that never seemed to end, finally did around June 6th when the final states voted for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. By the weekend, Obama was the presumptive nominee, holding a clear majority of the delegates.
Now, the breakdown.
First, I'm going to look at the percieved cons and see if they're still relevent:
Con 1) Divided Democratic party: Um, not so much. A lot of hooplah and fuss was made over a fringe-group of turncoat Democrats known as PUMA (Party Unity My Ass... classy, I know). The media had a field-day, exclaiming that no party going into the convention divided has ever gone on to win the general-election. The diligent cable news networks invited former Hillary supporters such as the infamous Harriet Christian (who publicly said she would change her support to McCain) and interviewed her as if she were an expert on the feelings of the electorate as a whole. The pundits drooled over potential nightmare scenarios involving widescale riots and many compared it to the deeply divided 1968 Chicago Dem Convention BEFORE IT EVEN HAPPENED. At the very least, those-who-talk-endlessly-on-cable were discussing the possibility of a divided delegate vote at the convention and chaos unfolding on the floor with second and third ballots. Not a pretty sight for an event that's supposed to give your ticket a boost, to be sure. What ended up actually happening is Hillary Clinton in the new spirit of unity, graciously called for an end to the delegate roll-call and released all of them to Obama. Good for her and great for the strength of the Democratic ticket.
Today, outside of extremist sites like 'No Quarter' and 'Hillary is 44' who with their combined 20 posters have shown the world how much they lack in character, the Democratic party has come together and realized that even if we differ on the vessel, we all believe in the same progressive policies. And the only way forward is with the Democratic nominee Barack Obama. Hell, even formerly hated Taylor Marsh has come completely on-board. So in the end, the Democratic Convention went off without a hitch and showcased some wonderful speeches for the history-books and a peek at what awaits America's future (it's good).
Con 2) Obama was late to come out of the gate and attack McCain: Fact is, he didn't need to attack McCain. The primary was great in the sense that the news coverage 24/7 was on Obama and Clinton. McCain was left out in the cold and pleading for attention like that old guy Hans from 'The Simpsons', virtually ignored by the press for the months between February and June, as all eyes were focused on the Obama/Clinton show. This was great for Obama for two essiential reasons....
- 1) Barack Obama, as far as mainstream-America goes, came into the presidential race virtually unknown. Over the ensuing months as he toured America and connected with viewers and voters during his amazing speeches, they came to know him and support him. That's why McCain's "how well do you know Obama?" attacks are falling flat on their face. Because America does KNOW Obama. It's McCain's running-mate they're unsure of (more on that later...).
- 2) Sure, the prolonged Democratic primary came with its hits and bumps, but if NOT for it, who's to say we wouldn't be finding out about Reverend Wright now? As the HRC teams dug up what they could on Obama, they were doing him a huge favor by bringing it to light almost a year before the general vote on November 4th. And this makes stuff like the good reverend today... very old news. Now think for a minute... can you imagine the potential harm we would be dealing with right now, if the Wright sermons came to light this week? We dodged a huge bullet there.
So, the two (from what I can tell) main cons about the prolonged Democratic primary season shot down. And, in fact, turned to pros. Speaking of which...
Now, let's look at the pros...
Pro 1) Sharpening of debate skills: Obama may never be a master debater (okay, wise guys, no self-fornication jokes!), but he improved tremendously from his earliest sparring with Hillary to the cool, calm verbal smackdowns he delivered to McCain this month. Hillary unknowingly trained him. Tough love, but it worked. His debate skills will never match the sheer, forceful eloquence of his speeches, but comparing his earliest outings with Hillary to his October debates with McCain is literally night and day. Without that learned experience, who knows how his performance may have been? Maybe the end-result would be the same, or maybe there would have been a bad misstep, a gaffe or an opening that left McCain a chance to clean his clock. Well, now we know Obama won the debates and yes, a good deal of credit must go to the (what seemed like) dozens of debates he had with Hillary.
Pro 2) Structural and Institutional State and Volunteer Advantage: While Obama was jetsetting between Indiana and North Carolina and Pennsylvania for their assorted caucuses and primaries, he was also setting up field-offices and banking recruits and volunteers vigorously. These actions were primarily aimed at winning those states during that gruelling season with Hillary, but they have had a profound and vastly important secondary effect. We ended up having strong presences in all the swing-states literally months before the McCain campaign ever stepped in there. McCain had to play catch-up. In fact, I would attribute our strong chances in previously blood-red states like Indiana and North Carolina to these early efforts. Those states have become Obama-country. Heck yeah.
Finally, and this is a Kossack favorite...
Pro 3) Palin Pick: McCain picked Palin for two reasons... one, was to appeal to the conservative base that he was not enthusing on his own, but another equally important factor in his decision was to appeal to embittered former Hillary supporters who wanted a woman to break that glass ceiling at all costs. It was a grave miscalculation on McCain's part as we all now know. In his cynical bid for votes, John McCain forgot these voters actually have something called a brain and were not going to be swayed by his choice just because his choice shared a chromosome with Hillary. Because in fact, that's all Sarah Palin shares with HRC. Palin is the anti-feminist, an anti-choice insult to woman's sufferage and everything strong women role-models have been fighting for, for centuries. Hillary voters saw right through this slick facade, and if anything it accelerated the reunification of the Democratic party. The only thing Palin has succeeded in, is exciting the fringe-base at the cost of independents and not shockingly, women voters. Epic fail can only be said so many times before it's a cliche. But what else can you expect from a man who has so often misread the political landscape?
So there ya go, kossacks. In the end it all worked out and we're one happy family again! Booyah! Who knew back in those dark days of April that this would all turn out okay? The final verdict: Prolonged Democratic primary season.... Good.
And as Colbert would say, and that's the word.