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U.S. Presidential
Elections 2008
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Changing Ideologies
Why Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton
became Democratic front runners for the US presidential elections 2008
The author grants anybody who wishes the
right to reprint or spin this article
under the sole condition to properly quote and link to the source :
D.C. Shouter / A Classification
of American Wealth |
When
nine months ago polls showed that a generic Democratic candidate would beat
any Republican in the 2008 race to the U.S. presidency by a large margin,
few would have expected the Democratic Party to stand before the present
dilemma. In the most embittered primary elections held in years, the
Democrats of America supported two candidates, who may be qualified anything
but generic. The result is, despite all contrary affirmations by party
officials and candidates, a wide rift in the Democratic Party, likely to
benefit the GOP enough for their standard bearer, John McCain, to clinch the
executive office in November.
A
black man or a woman as candidates of this year’s favorite large party to
the highest office in our country set a historical stage to the political
drama that shakes America (and the World) regularly every four years. This
unlikely outcome reflects the fallout of Americans with their governing
class as does the Republican Party’s selection of the 71 year old John
McCain, whose legitimacy essentially stems from his distance to the Bush
administration.
George
Walker Bush, scion of a political dynasty whose destiny it was to guide
America into the 21st century, certainly has a mixed record as far as the
achievements of his administration during two terms are concerned. If there
was a secret agenda for the Bush administration to support the oil, tobacco
and defense industries, he did extremely well.
The
invasion of Iraq, a successful raid on America’s newest frontiers (foreign
countries and US taxpayers’ money), propelled the crude oil price to over
130 dollars a barrel, to the great satisfaction of Exxon-Mobil and her
consorts. Defense contractors, whose doomed prospects were to recycle into
environmental technologies at the end of the (Bill) Clinton era, are again
solidly entrenched as merchants of death. And the tobacco companies have (forever?)
weathered the storms of landmark cancer lawsuits, thanks to judicial
appointments so conveniently made by President Bush.
True
the Bush years were not as prosperous as Bill Clinton’s 1990s, with the
technology sector collapsing, utilities going bankrupt and soaring real
estate values erased in a whisper. But the wealthy did well under the Bush
Administration. There are more billionaires than ever in America (and in the
World) and demand for (foreign built) luxury cars cannot be curbed by the $4
per gallon tag at the gas stations. Tax refunds helped, at least until the
administration finally found out that the surpluses of the Clinton years had
vanished and turned into deficits again.
Health
care and social security issues did not bother a majority of Americans
enough in 2004 to vote for John Kerry. There was a war to win. And who the
hell gives a damn about America’s image abroad. After all, “those who are
not with us are against us”. How many does that make against us? And why did
nobody tell us that Kyoto also had something to do with hurricanes ravaging
Louisiana?
Well,
ideologies have changed as Americans have found out the hard way that their
actions have impacts on people, including themselves. The 2008 candidates to
the U.S. Presidency reflect these changing values : the Republican John
McCain through his outspoken distance to the Bush administration and the two
Democrats by gender or ethnical roots.
Not
that this election is about gender or race, although both are likely to play
a maybe not so insignificant part. But the minority status of African
Americans grants Obama a certain immunity against the widespread criticism
of American policies. He naturally symbolizes change, a message his campaign
has well embraced. Young, college educated Americans are certainly
open-minded enough to imagine a black man with a strange name as their
president. Or at least, they feel compelled to be, in the present
environment.
Hillary
Clinton’s symbolism of change is a bit more multi-faceted. As a woman, she
is perceived to embrace family and conservation as values that sometimes
seem to elude men. She thus gains strong credentials on such priority topics
as health care and environment. From her background at the side of former
president Bill Clinton, she also represents the anti-thesis of the Bush
administration on a number of issues, such as the economy and foreign policy.
However, this same background also ties her with the establishment and makes
her less attractive to those voters who expect more radical change.
Barack
Obama has conducted an almost flawless, carefully planned and well funded
campaign, taking advantage of the specific rules of Democratic primaries,
which considerably differ from the Republican’s, and from the general
election in November. He is close to win the battle for nomination but in
light of the widening rift inside the Democratic Party, he may well be
poised to loose the war. Hillary Clinton would most likely have the better
chances to win the general election (see article “Numbers” below), but she’s nowhere
close to get the nomination.
Today
(Saturday May 31), the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is meeting to
resolve the issue about the seating of Michigan and Florida’s delegates at
the national convention in August. Nothing less than the exclusion of two
large states, with 368 delegates, representing over 28 million Americans, is
at stakes. Following the DNC’s ruling to bar the delegations of the two
states from the National Democratic Convention in August, Barack Obama
withdrew his name from the ballot in Michigan and both candidates renounced
to campaign in these states. Mrs Clinton won both states by large margins
and now seeks to have them restored; a last attempt to change the
mathematics of a game that is almost over.
General Interest
: Politics
> Presidential Elections 2008 :
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