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Thursday, March 27, 2008

Evenly Split

There are even more poll numbers showing that the Dems are evenly split, and I mean right down the middle. Rasmussen reports that among Democrats, 22% want Clinton to drop out of the race, and 22% want Obama to drop out. Also, in an indication that at least Democrats want this to go on, 67% say they are not ready for the race to end.

So, where does that leave us?

It's simply too easy to say that either candidate should drop out. In my opinion, the media and the pundits have all too often called a race over when fewer than 1% of the party members have voted, right after the IA and NH caucus and primary, maybe waiting until after SC. But, the people, at least Democrats, are speaking now, let us vote too, and it's about time the media settled down and let the voters vote.

In this day and age with a dozen cable news channels frantic to find something to say 24 hours a day, 7 days a week it has become almost impossible for any candidate to speak candidly. Their words are taken out of context, their mistatements become lies, their gaffes become headline news for several days, and their policy statements garner little more than a short article in the paper, or a few seconds on the nightly news. And, both Democratic candidates fuel this problem with the media. They pander to the press, slipping photos to reporters, irrationally emailing so-called news about the other candidate to the media, eagerly and constantly exaggerating the perceived errors of the other candidate.

It's no wonder other polls temporily show people claiming to want to jump from the party. In the end, McCain should lose much of that thin, very thin, current support.

That's not to say that during the heat of a campaign a candidate should not point out the other's mistakes, engage in argument, call -out her/his opponent on issues that matter, and even on their character. Those are all legitimate issues for the candidates and the voters. And, the Rasmussen poll numbers showing that 67% of us want this race to continue indicates that Democratic voters agree. But the level of drama over disagreements about things like Democratic party rules, whether elevated by a willing 24 hour a day media out for ratings, by unwitting (or witting) candidate accomplices, or by lowly supporters, should be tamped down before the alienation becomes permanent.

1 comment:

pdrez said...

I'm not sure if this was meant to be a response to my previous post, but I fully agree with you that the 24/7 media has a large part to do with the negativity and bitterness that is characterizing this race. But that is the nature of the business, there is not a lot to talk about between primaries. Their policy stances aren't exactly going to change from one day to the next.

I side with the 67% that does not want to see the race end, and I don't think either candidate should drop out. It is surprising, however, to see that on the topic of one candidate dropping out, both scored 22%. If there are calls for one to withdraw, you would think it would be Clinton, because Obama holds what seems to be an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates and popular vote (barring Michigan and Florida being counted), and right now she is relying on a multitude of "ifs" to state her claim for representing the Democratic party in November. So, I find it interesting that just as many Dem voters want Obama to drop out as they want Clinton to.