During Austin's Ice Hibernation last week, I spent a lot of time organizing things in preparation of the upcoming political melee we know as Presidential campaigning. I bookmarked every candidates website, signed up for their emails, and (for bonus points) my RSS feed was set up to get instant syndication from the candidate's websites that are set up for it. (John Edwards, Tom Vilsack, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden and Mitt Romney).
I have mixed feelings about this election. My main concern with the Democrats is it has shaped into a showcase of diversity, which I applaud. The first viable woman, African-American, and Latino candidates are running. A huge event, one that the news outlets have not been discussing enough. My main worry now is that we will inevitably deny at least one of these very important constituencies inside the Democratic party the opportunity to be on the ticket.
Will woman be upset if the ticket is Obama/Richardson? Will African-Americans turn out for Clinton/Richardson? Will Latinos mobilize for Clinton/Obama? I wish these were just petty concerns that have no place in our decision-making, but reality is much different.
The solution to this is to have a very clean, upbeat campaign from all parties, one that allows the loser to still be apart of the campaign in the general election. I am not sure I trust the candidates to stay away from the negative, but I hope, hope, hope that advisors somewhere are reminding them that a bitter primary fight could drive away huge numbers of voters we need in the election. I hope, I hope.
I also hope I don't get so obsessed with the election that I lose sleep, but two years out, it is not looking too good.
