This year the presidential primaries have done their job – they have given us some advance insight into how each of the candidates might be as a president.
Senator Obama has shown that although relatively inexperienced at the national level, he can assemble and manage a highly effective team. He has also shown that he is not interested in negative campaigning and dirty tricks – a welcome relief.
Senator McCain has also shown a preference for campaigning on the issues, not on his opponent’s personality. Although he struggled early with his campaign staff, he did manage finally to pull them together to win the Republican nomination. And he has continued to show the independent streak – the willingness to say what he believes to be true rather than what people want to hear – that has made him appealing.
Senator Clinton has come off worst in the primaries. Despite having access to a number of experienced campaign managers from her husband’s staff, she chose to pick inexperienced people whose primary qualification was unswerving personal loyalty to her, and her campaign strategy has suffered for it. If she were elected president, one assumes she would follow the same pattern, most likely with the same results.
Perhaps the most telling action by Senator Clinton has been her reversal on the issue of the Florida and Michigan delegates. Back when she was the presumptive leader, she along with the other candidates agreed not to campaign in those states after the Democratic National Committee ruled against seating their delegates for moving their primaries early. In fact, Senator Obama’s name didn’t even appear on the ballot in Michigan. Yet now that she desperately needs more delegates, she has been making disingenuous arguments about how important it is to count their votes, claiming wins in those states even though there was never really a campaign in either state. The DNC has managed to find a compromise that satisfies nobody and angers both sides, but it may be a moot point since Senator Obama will probably win the nomination anyway. Perhaps more telling is Senator Clinton’s apparent willingness to embroil the Democratic Party in a nasty, protracted and potentially destructive convention fight even when her cause is lost.
So on balance the primaries this time have done what they are supposed to do - give us a trial run of the candidate's abilities.
Posts
