It's an election year down south!

If it weren’t for the entertainment factor of the whole deal I don’t know that I would pay any attention at all to the election currently going on with our friends to the south (the United States). As usual it started out with a pack of folks from both parties, most of whom you had never heard of before and will never hear of again, all squabbling over who is the most religious and family oriented. A couple of debates later and the pack was whittled down to some serious contenders, and after some of these folks made some serious (or not so serious) mistakes then it should have come down to the final two candidates, plus some independents, making that final push for the White House. That last bit hasn’t come to pass yet and if the Democrats keep carrying on the way they are it won’t happen until late August.

Senator Hillary Clinton (D – New York) believes that Primary’s held in the states of Michigan and Florida should count, even though they were both held earlier than her party allows and are considered illegal by the Democratic party. Senator Barack Obama (D – Illinois) removed his name from the Michigan ballot but was not allowed to remove his name from the Florida ballot due to state law. He did this when the Democratic National Committee said that the primary’s would not count. Senator Clinton apparently doesn’t think that the rules of her party are very important and allowed her name to stand in Michigan (as well as, Florida) but didn’t campaign in either state and now thinks that the results should count (she won both primary’s)

Surprisingly enough the bigwigs of the Democratic Party disagree. Last Saturday (May 31) the DNC rules and bylaws committee said that half-delegations will be allowed from Michigan and Florida at the Convention, August 23 – 28, and Senator Obama will be given all delegates that voted ‘uncommitted’. The Clinton campaign doesn’t like this and has said that they will be raising a stink right up until the convention unless full-delegations are allowed from each state with their votes intact. Potentially they could appeal to the party’s credentials committee, and I suspect they probably will. From the little I’ve seen, or paid attention to, Senator Clinton is not one to give up real easy. Yeah, it very much looks as though the Democratic Party is shooting itself in the foot, or feet. Part of me does wonder if they are doing all this on purpose just so they will lose in November and then they put off having to deal with the mess in Iraq for a few more years. I wonder, are the Democrats that Machiavellian?

I believe that as a Canadian I’m supposed to hope that the Democratic candidate (whoever it turns out to be) wins the election in November. Realistically I suspect the Republicans would be the better party to win, being-a-Canadian-wise (if that’s a word, and even if it isn’t). Supposedly the Republicans believe in free-trade rather than protectionism, (although I think that’s a load of butt-junk), while the Democrats are partially financed by the Unions in the US, and more likely to have protectionist policies, which is only right. US politicians should protect US worker’s jobs and the Republicans don’t seem to worry about it as much as the Democrats do.

One thing that would worry me about the Republican candidate is his temper and lack of good judgment. He tends to come across as the “folksy” type, but I don’t think that is an accurate description of Senator John McCain (R – Arizona). In 1992 during his run for the Senate he called his wife a “trollop” and a “c*nt” (he later said that he had been tired at the time because it had been a long day. The President of the United States, of course, never has long days). In 1998 at a Republican Senate fund-raiser he made a joke involving President Bill Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea. She was 18-years old at the time. A truly good man never would have even thought of making a joke about a young lady like that, never mind saying it. This is Senator John McCain. He is probably also the next President of the United States.

So it’s a gong show and it looks again as though the voters in the United States will have to make their choice much as we do here in Canada. You’re not voting for the best person, but for the least worst. Good luck with that.

Anyway… Humouroceros