Fighting in Pennsylvania

Unfortunately, it seems that we are once again seeing the Democratic presidential candidates battle it out. While we seem to have had some sort of relative lull recently, the Pennsylvania primaries have rekindled the debates. The change was apparent when the candidates went from saying that their respective opponent could beat McCain in a general election to apparently now saying that the other couldn’t win in the general election. But that’s just one small example of the fighting going on. Essentially the real problem is the fact that neither Obama nor Clinton seems to be able to go one day without verbally attacking the other.
Now, maybe this is very naive of me, but I was honestly hoping that we might have a cleaner run for the presidential candidate this year. Instead, it seems like McCain is just having some sort of relaxing nap while the Democratic candidates tear each other to pieces. I just find this strange because it seems like both candidates have similar ideas, at least for the most part. And when these primaries and caucuses first began, there were many people who found that they liked more than one of the candidates. But now we have negative ads coming through the mail and showing up on the T.V. and it seems like half of the debate time is eaten up by issues that really don’t matter (read: Obama’s old pastor and Clinton’s Bosnia incident). Granted, this has been happening for a while now, but why? Both of the candidates know that the longer this goes on, the worse things are going to be when one of them is running for president.
I guess the part that really concerns me is the large possibility that neither of the candidates will be able to have the minimum of 2,025 delegates needed to win. I mean, if this is the fighting we must put up with at a big primary, just think of the convention. I have a feeling that the unity they’re hoping for after convention will be elusive.

"Bitter"

We have yet another presidential tiff after Obama’s comments about small town citizens being “bitter” about their lack of financial help from the government which leads them to “cling to guns and religion.” Clinton and McCain speedily and happily proclaimed him an “elitist” and now new debate over the second amendment has emerged.
So the real issue behind all this is that the American people want someone like them in the presidency. First of all, this is rather contradictory as one must have significant funds in order to run for president in the first place. For example, both Clinton and McCain’s families are both worth about $100 million. Nevertheless, this hasn’t stopped Clinton from trying to relate to small town people by telling old hunting stories from her childhood. Whether or not these stories had the intended effect depends on who you talked to. However, I find it odd that presidential candidates feel that they are relating to the middle class by telling stories of hunting or drinking shots (like Clinton). I mean, honestly, maybe I’m off the track but those don’t seem to be our only pastimes. It makes it seem more like they’re taking a time to just condescend to our level. Like we’re too simple for anything else.

Youth Vote

I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve heard an older person make the comment that my generation lacks the political awareness and action of older generations. This is obviously coming from the generation who lived during the Vietnam War and participated in many protests. While I don’t think this is entirely accurate, there are a few grains of truth with it.

There is something wrong with the percentage of those between the ages 18 and 30 who vote. When you look at South Carolina, for example, this age group made up 9% of voters in 2004, but this increased to 14% in this year’s primary. There are two ways to look at this. First of all, 9%?! This percentage is much lower than our actual representation. But you can also look at the trends. Many organizations about the youth vote, such as CIRCLE, are reporting a larger amount than usual of young voters, often doubling or tripling past participation numbers. And the majority of these voters are democrats for Obama. For once, it feels like my generation truly is stepping up to the plate to change the face of politics.