Again, I have to say, "what the hell is the matter with people?"
THIS IS THE PRIMARY
No one, NO ONE, should be asked, told or otherwise hinted at to drop out of the campaign, EVER.
Why?
This is not the general election.
This is the fight to become the nominee of the Democratic Party.
Why shouldn't candidates stay in till the bitter end? The nominating convention is in July, that leaves a three month period for everybody to kiss and makeup before the November election date.
If the problem is a wounded candidate emerging from that convention due to harsh campaigning, I say, hold on - isn't that supposed to be the purpose of the primary season?
To winnow out those unable to continue (due to any number of reasons: finances, issues, craziness, whatever), to uncover any hidden weaknesses before the general election and either bring down a candidate or truely vet him or her for the general election?
I'm disgusted with the 'get along, move along' attitude of the media, the blogosphere and the voters on this issue. Voting on an 'electability' meme is the same as voting for class president in 6th grade. Grow up. This is not a campaign for prom king, but it sure looks like one.
I don't want the early finish. I want the best able candidate, who has been scoured by the fire of primary battles - and hardened by that fire to withstand the heat of the general battle to come. This fall it's going to be dirt and grenades, anyone who thinks otherwise is simply hiding their head in the sand. It's the last gasp of the military industrial complex against the 'the people', and only one of them is going to win, the other is going to become a footnote in history.
Did I feel betrayed by the massive media machine when it turned unexpectedly on Howard Dean just before the first voters cast a ballot in January? Hell yeah, I did.
Do Kerry supporters feel thunderstruck by the current rumours regarding him and the reporter? I'm absolutely certain they do.
How else though, to find the mettle of the candidate, than to see him or her under fire.
We now see our current President and his staff trying desperately to stem the tide of an issue that, by all rights, the media should have investigated as it is doing now, during the last primary cycle. This AWOL issue is not new news. Anyone interested in politics heard or read something about this in 1999. Unforunately, at that time, the press found it unappealing as an issue. Today, however, it is the dish of the day.
The general citizenry has become more and more inurred to the chicanery and outright corrupt practices of our national political scene over the past decades. We go about our daily lives, pay our taxes (bitching the whole while), raise our families.
Every four years, we get inundated by the press, trying desperately to interest us in an election that we find less and less meaningful to us. They have resorted to more and more degrading stories regarding the candidates, under the seeming impression that we're not listening, because the 'news' isn't lewd or loud or foul enough.
I've got news for the media. We quite listening, because you quit telling us anything of substance.
Last summer, it was Kerry thinks he's JFK redoux.
This winter it was, Dean is angry, and crazy, hear him scream....
This spring it's Kerry has round heels, and he's a waffler on every issue...
I firmly expect to read this next week that John Edwards was adopted, and his real family is RICH, RICH, RICH.....
What I don't expect to read or hear, is a list of the issues at stake, and what the candidates have to say about them. I should. It's what I need to know to cast an intelligent vote for one of them. It's the press's bounden duty to present me with this information, and they're failing - miserably.
Don't take anymore polls on 'who do you think can beat Bush?' I don't want to read it.
Don't ask me or anyone else to move our support of a candidate to someone else before the last primary has take place. As far as I'm concerned, that's unamerican.
Don't give us anymore 10 second soundbites showing the candidate in a crowd of supporters - that's totally meaningless, and every single reporter knows it.
And absolutely, positively, quit writing stories about who should be in, who should be out. The voters in the primaries will decide that, and according to our Constitution, they're only ones with a vote that counts.
Do your job. Report some news. Leave the gossip for the back fence for a change.