If there is any one thing that can be said about the 2008 presidential campaign so far, it is that it has been interesting. Among its many twists and turns: John McCain coming from predicted defeat to being the presumptive nominee, Fred Thompson's (let's face it) disastrous run, Hillary Clinton's fall from grace, and Barack Obama's transformation from saviour to politician.
Focusing on the Democrats, at some point you have to ask, "Why is Hillary even in the race anymore?" According to the mainstream media, both the Republican and Democratic contests should have been over by or decided during February's much hailed "Super Tuesday." But somehow, they weren't.
Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has claimed the credit for Clinton's near-miraculous hanging on to Obama's heels with his "Operation Chaos", in which Republicans cross over and vote for Hillary in Democratic primaries, generating more votes and controversy. It seems to actually be popular among listeners, as many states have recently tried to block cross-over voting, calling it cheating. Anyways, the goal has not been to elect Clinton, but to keep her in the race long enough to create attacks on the formerly unquestioned Barack Obama.
Whether it was Limbaugh's "Chaos", relatively good campaigning on Clinton's part, or just pure chance, Clinton's now relentless lockjaw grip on the slippery brink of defeat has generated problems for the holy mission to get Obama elected.
The most notable one is the controversy surrounding Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's now former pastor, whose inflammatory remarks on alleged American racism- the remarks themselves showing his racist way of thinking- have called Obama's core, supposedly unifying, beliefs into question.
In seeking to defuse the controversy, there have been comparisons between Republican candidate John McCain's courting of the evangelical Christian right and Obama's relationship with Wright, saying that Obama does not really believe Wright's rhetoric, but these are ridiculous. McCain is trying to get Christians to vote for him; Obama has gone to Wright's church for years, having Wright baptise his children, even. Obviously, Obama has more in common with Wright than McCain does with Dr. James Dobson or other members of the Christian right, whose rhetoric is not even inflammatory, racist, etc.
In any case, criticism of Obama is good for American. Without it. we'd hardly even know anything about a serious contender for America's president.
An interesting thing I've seen, that I predicted, that is annoying:
All of the news reports are about how racist white people are because they're voting 60% for Clinton and only 40% for Obama.
That's actually pretty even.
But, no one is discussing the racism in the african american vote, with 90% voting for Obama and only 10% for Clinton.
Why is 60% of white democrats voting for clinton called racist, but 90% of black democrats voting for obama NOT called racist?
Isn't that.... racist?