Obama is Taking the High Road

Barack Obama has won the primary in North Carolina by a considerable margin. Hillary Clinton held on to win a very close one in Indiana. Obama's campaign manager, David Axelrod, pointed out that this narrow margin of victory for Clinton can be credited to Rush Limbaugh's get-out-the-vote for-Hillary campaign. 10% of the voters in the Democratic primary in Indiana were Republican, and a sizable number of them supported Hillary. I don't know for certain how many Republicans came to the polls for Hillary at Limbaugh's behest, but I do know that the Clinton's victory came by such a small margin that if even 10% of the Republicans voting for Hillary did so in order to mess up Obama and the Democratic Party, it worked.

Through all the Clinton mud-slinging, Obama has chosen to take the high road. He keeps to an optimistic message. He believes that real change is possible in Washington that will help average Americans. And I am pleased that Obama is able to present the face of a better future for our country.

Now it's on to West Virginia, Oregon, and Kentucky. Puerto Rico will come after that. Clinton had to loan her own campaign more than $6 million dollars this month, because she can't get enough money in from supporters. I'm not sure that's the way campaigns out to be supported in America. One of the problems of this country is that it's run by the wealthy. And having candidates who can throw that kind of money at a campaign that isn't supported by the people is just a symptom of this same disease that continues to weaken the ideals and the promise of our country. But it's legal--for now. We should all be aware of what's going on, however, and ask ourselves if we want to nominate a candidate whose campaign can only continue because she is obstinate and filthy rich.

Clinton is determined to have this nomination decided at the convention by the super delegates. My concern is that, by leaving the nomination to be decided there, the news that Obama is our nominee will provoke a strong negative reaction in the Clinton camp that won't have time to heal before November. The Convention is in August. The election is in November. Having a huge uproar of internal hostility at the Convention could easily spill over with such venom into the fall that the Democrats may not have time to recover and take on the real challenge--keeping the Republicans from retaking the White House.