Today is the day of Democratic Primaries in Kentucky and Oregon. I am hoping and betting that it is the Final Day That Matters in the race for the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States.
It very well could be. First, let’s look at the expectations here. Hillary Clinton is going to win Kentucky. Barack Obama is going to win Oregon. Everyone knows that. Now…the question is, will Sen. Obama pick up enough delegates when the day is over to finally claim Final Victory in this endless, endless campaign? I am thinking that he will — and that in the next few days he will pick up enough additional Superdelegates to make the whole question moot.

It’s about time.
Now I want you to know that I agree with and support the democratic process as enthusiastically as anyone. But enough is enough. I mean, really.
In Great Britain the entire campaign season for national office is just a few weeks long. They would never, ever sit still for something that drags on as long as this campaign in America has taken. We wonder why money corrupts so much of U.S. politics. Well, do you have any idea how much it costs to be on the campaign trail for two and a half years?
I am so proud of the Democratic Party for coming up with such a slate of really worthy and wonderful candidates. Not just Hillary and Barack, but all of them. With almost no exception, the people that the party put up this year have been outstanding. And to have it all come down to Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama has been a dream come true…or, at least, it HAD been….until the past eight weeks or so, when the campaign season started being marked by the worst kind of mud-slinging and dirty politics. Mostly, I am sorry to say, from the Clinton camp, which, clearly unable to make much headway on Obama on the issues, obviously decided in these past two months to make everything about personalities.
That’s a shame, because it besmirches our electoral process, in my opinion.
I am happy to see that in the past week Sen. Clinton has backed off a little on her personal attacks, even saying some nice things about her opponent for a change, while she continues slugging ahead with her own campaign. I know now why she has refused to get out of the race, even though it is clear to everyone at this point that she will not get the nomination: Hillary Clinton does not want to be seen by anyone as a “quitter.” She is going to see this thing through to its final stages, if it’s the last thing she does.
Hillary Clinton’s highest marks are given for her tenacity. She claims that she is a “fighter” and she is. She’s a bulldog. She won’t take no for an answer. And that’s how she wants to be remembered when this campaign is over–as the lady who would not give up or give in, standing firm even against overwhelming odds. And you know, I could admire that if she hadn’t allowed her campaign to use such nasty tactics over the past two months in order for her to make her point and “show up” that way.
Americans want a fighter, but they don’t want a dirty fighter. It’s dirty fighting to sign an agreement (yes, she actually signed it) that the votes in Michigan and Florida would not count because those states’ broke Democratic Party rules on when to hold their primaries…and then to insist that the only “fair” thing to do is to count those votes after all (Obama was not even on the ballot in Michigan, for heaven sake. How can she claim that as a ‘win’? But she wants to…and that’s the kind of hypocritical, dirty and unfair playing that has characterized her final-days-approach to this campaign.)
But enough. With any luck, tonight it will all be over. Then we can get on with the business of electing Barack Obama President of the United States, and make jaw-dropping history around the world…