A Bare Knuckles Brawl

04/23/2008

Paul Munnis


It’s the day after the Pennsylvania primary and the press is full of Obama and Clinton feature stories.

People who are pro-Clinton say that Obama can’t close the deal and has too much baggage from the black community to ever win the presidency.

Those who are pro-Obama say that Hillary bears too much dirty-laundry.

The NY Times ran an editorial today called “The Low-road to the White House” lamenting that the Democratic primary is so rough and tumble.

This is how American politics is played. Campaigning is this way by design just as football is different from baseball by design. Politics is a contact contest.

Voters want to know if a candidate can close the deal when the heat is turned up, voters want to know if the candidate can manage infighting and get their way past the human foibles and administrative chaos. Americans have a phrase for this and it’s posed as a question: “Does the Candidate Have What It Takes?”

Anything happening in the presidential primary is just a warm up for the campaign war ahead against the R’s and all Democrats know it.

What it will come down to in the end is a question of who the Party thinks can manage McCain. Both candidates have baggage, so does the R candidate; both have strengths and weaknesses; both can and will be attacked by the R’s; both will be exposed to the “Low Road” as the NY Times calls it.

So what? Can they win and manage adversity under fire is the thing voters care about.

Each day is a fresh job interview for these candidates. People who voted for one or the other in earlier primaries are looking close to see if their earlier assessment is holding up under fire. When Hillary says she did not get sniper fire in Bosnia it’s not about whether she did or didn’t or whether she lied or not – it’s whether she can manage the firestorm. When Obama says he loves the sinner but hates the sin of the Reverend Wright and then flip-flops when Hillary says she would have left that Church and Obama then says “Me too” then people note that stuff.

People are also watching to see which candidate is able to provide and defend cogent policy proposals even though we know that the opposition will have plenty to say about actually implementing them.

Most important of all people are looking at where the candidates will govern from: left, right, or center, and if they are still comfortable or not with the candidate as they learn the answer.

Nope, the American campaign for the presidency will continue, Hillary will be given every chance to come back from earlier primaries as the delegates are watching knowing full well that they are pledged only for the first round of voting at the DNC Convention. The Super Delegates are looking at how a candidate for president handles themselves. We are electing a horse to enter into a race and we want our horse to win.

It’s the American way.

Democrats have little to worry about. We have two great candidates, they are being fire hardened now and the R’s are noting our candidates and probing for weaknesses and looking for an opening. If the candidates can’t stand the test then the R’s will use dirty tricks and illegal methods. Can a candidate hold up to that?

The Democratic Party is going to be stronger as each tries to knock the other out in the bare knuckles battle for the White House. Each primary or caucus is a test of the quality of the steel produced from the fire tempering of our Democratic candidates.

So far both are looking pretty good to me.

Now, about those Edwards Delegates…