Letters to the Editor
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Forget Electability
But the problem with any electability argument is that it assumes that the election were held next week. There are still 6 months from June till November. Most people don't know anything about McCain but the scant little that gets reported on, whereas day in day out people are bombarded with a dirty and divisive campaign. If this were a Hillary or Obama vs McCain period the polls would look much different. Also, how do you define electability? Obama seems weak seeing as how the last 6 weeks have witnessed the birth of Rev Wright and bitter gate which have been dominating the news. You better believe if Hillary were the frontrunner and Obama weren't trying to run a completely different style of campaign there would be some vicious, nasty stuff dug up on her. Once the nomination is over expect dirt to come out on McCain as well. By and large, Dems vote for however the democratic nominee is regardless of how the candidate is. Also, on every metric Dems have the advantage going into this election. The only dice roll that the party has is wondering whether or not to find out how much racial politics matter in this presidential election. Will the racists show up in force to support to GOP or will African Americans reconcile with someone who they feel stole what was theirs. Personally, the Clinton brand is well and known and despite what she says, they have a playbook for success to run against her in the fall. Obama is a newcomer and almost everything that would have sinked a lesser candidate (Wright most significantly) he has literally brushed of his shoulders. While there is no denying the harm Rev Wright has done to his candidacy, it isn't as severe as was once thought. Most Dems and the right leaning independents aren't going to defect to the GOP over this, especially once the kinds start showing in his armor just like they did to Obama. Furthermore, the levels of turnout and numbers of new voters he is going to be able to bring out in November goes above and beyond anything Hillary or McCain could do. And even if he were to somehow lose, the people he will be able to bring into the party for this election represent the future of this party and they almost certainly won't let him down or the dems down in the midterms or 2012.