It's been a rough few months here at big orange. I'm sure that it's only going to get worse. The primary race is narrowing down pretty quickly, but it's still going to be a few weeks, at least, before we have a nominee. There have been some pretty lethal candidate diaries, and it's probably worth stepping back for a minute and examining the candidates.
None of the top three candidates are perfect. None of the top three candidates are unbearable. None of the top three candidates are Republicans. All of the top three candidates are Democrats. All of the top three candidates could get elected.
I'm a big fan of primaries. In a two party system such as ours, it is essential that those two major parties know what they believe, and there aren't a lot of ways to do that that beat the primary system. Sure there are flaws, but I know that I can't think of anything better. Nonetheless, there is a difference between debating policy and debating crap.
It would be nice if one of these candidates would be perfect. I don't have to think for long to come up with quite a few people who I wish were running. But those people aren't in the race; Clinton, Edwards, and Obama are (in case your curious, that was done alphabetically). One of them is going to be the nominee, and it won't necessarily be decided by the netroots as a group or by you as an individual. It will be decided by the party.
The last thing that we want to have happen is for a big chunk of the party get soured on a candidate who becomes the nominee. And since there is no way to know which of the three it will be, its probably worth remembering that while everyone of them (for that matter everyone who has ever held public history) is a flawed, imperfect human.
And not one of those three humans believes that Reagan and the Republicans had the better ideas in the '80s, not one. But it is worth pointing out that one factor in republican dominance over the last couple of decades had to do with them throwing more ideas (crappy though they may have been) out there then we did.
Not one of those three humans wants to turn the Democratic party into the Republican party. All three of them want the party to win and run the government. It is worth pointing out, though, that the occasional compromise will be needed.
And, I honestly believe that all three of those humans are for real. Each one of them are sincere in their beliefs.
Look, no one here is going to agree with everything that any one candidate says. Ever. It's just not going to happen. No matter who gets the nomination, we're all going to have to swallow some crap, and that sucks. But someone will get that nomination, and the person who gets it will be qualified, sincere, and ready for the job.
So debate away. Talk about policies. There are real differences between the candidates on very important issues. Health care, the environment, and foreign policy will all be different depending on who is president, just to name a few things. But for God's sake, can we pair down the personal attacks.