Reading Maureen Dowd’s article published on April 16th, 2008 in the New York Times was like a strange experience. Since the elections’ campaign began to heat up she had been so vituperative whenever she wrote about Hillary Clinton and so praiseful about Barack Obama that this last article sounded as if it had been written on April 1st. Could she have written “The last few weeks have not been kind to Hillary, but the endless endgame has not been kind to the Wonder Boy either” and “Behind closed doors in San Francisco, elitism’s epicenter, Barack Obama showed his elitism, attributing the emotional, spiritual and cultural values of working-class, “lunch pail” Pennsylvanians to economic woes.”
Is the media beginning to wake up to mass hysteria they have contributed to create? As if coming from a long sleep the Democrats are beginning to realize what may happen if this nonsense among the two candidates does not stop. The problem is that the scapegoat if we lose the White house to the Republicans is going to be the wrong one: either Obama or Clinton. In my opinion, what happened is that the media has hyped the contest to sell copy and to boost the egos of several prominent pundits between the two candidates. But in that enterprise one should not forget the aid of some politicians and entertainers which had to be in the spot light. Before we knew it, from a fantastic opportunity of being the party which could bring the country the first black or woman president, we ended up with a quasi war between race and gender with a large drop of American Idol added by many of the young generation. And now it is too late. We have to try to go to the finish line maybe limping because we let the party be kidnapped by extremists, hysterical and self serving groups.
Why are the candidates trying to prove who is being more religious or was poorer growing up and other such trivia. I for one don’t care if Obama or Clinton can bowl or not. Remember Bush was chosen because people though they would prefer drinking beer with him than with Gore…but I care about who is going to be able to give the Americans a good and affordable universal health care plan; about who is going to be able to deal with the insurmountable problem of Iraq; about who is going to help create jobs and improve childhood education and so many important problems America is facing now. That is what I care about.
If dreams could come true I would have both candidates answer specific questions and I would make them stop giving speeches about change. Words are important but not without substance behind them. And that is what is lacking in this election: substance. Not shame on you Hillary, not shame on you Barack. Shame on us Democrats if we let the election slip through our fingers.
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