|
There are many calls now for Clinton and Obama to stop hurling insults at each other and focus on the issues. While that would be a good thing in the best of all possible worlds, it would do nothing to prepare a potential candidate to do battle with the Republicans--who I assure you--have no intention of focusing on the issues.
The '92 Democratic Primary was a long knock down drag out fight in which Bill Clinton's name was dragged through the mud. By the time he put down the last man standing, former California Governor Jerry Brown, voters knew that Clinton was a skirt chasing, draft dodger who had a dubious relationship to both the truth and to certain companies and wealthy individuals in Arkansas.
You know what, they voted for him anyway.
Sunlight and air have a surprising effect on shit (having been involved with horses my entire life I have ample experience with this phenomenon). When it's fresh it stinks to high heaven. Spread it and leave it out in a field and in a few days the smell has gone away and in a few weeks it's vanished into the earth where it helps to nourish the grass.
Al Gore was pretty much the designated nominee from the get go. Bill Bradley never laid a glove on him. John Kerry was essentially crowned after New Hampshire and never really had to duke it out. While you can argue that Gore actually won the election and that Kerry was the victim of fraud, the election should not have been close enough for George Bush to steal. Both Gore & Kerry thought that their stands on the issues would carry the day. Both were sadly mistaken. Both were also vulnerable to scurrilous personal attacks, I would argue, in part because they had not really been tested by their fellow Democrats.
I want a candidate who's battle hardened, one who knows how to give it out as well as take it. So far Clinton has proved a worthy warrior (I expected no less--it's about the only thing I like about her as a candidate) and Barack Obama is proving that he can git down and fight with the Big Dog in a way that I hadn't expected.
Sure, some things (such as race and gender) should be off limits, but if a candidate has an unseemly relationship with a contributer or dubious past business dealings, I want it out there now. Saying "Shush, don't talk about that, the Republicans might hear us" is absurd. They already have the dirt primed and ready to go. The question is, do we want them flinging fresh shit or old, rotted manure that has already turned into fertilizer?
|