02/01/08

It is the start of a new year and the beginning of a new election season. The year began with a historic moment in political history; Barack Obama won the Iowa caucus.

Now, I’m a realist, and I understand that only about 10 percent of the Baker Orange readers know what a caucus truly is, much less the historical implications of Senator Obama’s win there.

Also, I realize that only about 5 percent of the Baker Orange readers have actually read anything that I have ever written (and that number is actually inflated by the fact that my parents read this online). Believe me, if I wasn’t such a political junkie, I’d skip over this crap too, but not even 30 days in the Sierra Tucson could help an addiction like this.

I’m not here to explain to you the Iowa caucus system, nor am I here to tell you how great of a president Senator Obama would make.

I believe that all three of the top Democratic challengers would make amazing presidents. I’m here to let you know why the post-Iowa caucus Democratic Presidential Primary race has really pissed me off.

After the historic win in Iowa, Senator Obama gave one of the greatest political speeches of all time, rivaling even the late orator President Kennedy. The speech brought Senator Claire McCaskill to tears and encouraged her to publicly support Senator Obama, much in the same way that his speech moved Americans in every corner of the country.

The speech moved Democrats, Independents, Republicans, pundits and even Pat Buchanan possibly (if he’d allow himself to admit it). For the rest of my life I’ll know where I was, on my couch at my apartment, sipping on a stout, watching in awe as I watched what some say was the second greatest speech in American political history.

The next day, I woke up and was not only happy but also enthralled to be a member of the Democratic Party. I had gone from a disappointed citizen in 2000, to a disappointed voter in 2004, to an excited Democrat in 2006, and finally, a damn proud Liberal in 2008. Little did I know, my excitement would soon turn to frustration and a tinge of anger.

As the two weeks after Iowa passed, we saw Senator Clinton squeak by in New Hampshire (where she and Senator Obama tied for delegates); we saw her barely beat ‘unaffiliated’ in meaningless Michigan; and we observed her win the popular vote in Nevada but receive less convention delegates than Senator Obama (sound familiar?) What we were witnessing was not just narrow wins by Senator Clinton (which is historic in and of itself being as she is the first contending female candidate), but we were seeing an increase in negative campaigning by both Senators Clinton’s and Obama’s surrogates.

While the two campaigns publicly fought to get things under control, privately it appears Senator Clinton’s camp unleashed former President Bill Clinton to play ‘bad cop.’

Here is where my anger comes into play. I was raised in a liberal household that viewed President Clinton as a great president, someone who espoused the liberal ideology for a new generation.

I even dressed up as President Clinton for Halloween in the fourth grade and last year. However, we started to hear the subtle rumble of racism playing a role against Senator Obama coming from President Clinton.

The last time I checked, no former president has played such a large role in a modern presidential primary race such as Bill Clinton has this year.

I get it; it’s his wife, but George W. Bush was the son of a former president, and we never saw 41 getting on stage to attack John McCain in 2000 (maybe because he was secretly backing McCain; I mean, who could blame him?)

There is no role in primary politics for a former president to throw around his weight, no matter if it’s his wife, his son, his nephew, his granddaughter, his former vice president or anyone.

What former President Clinton has been saying about Senator Obama’s record and his race has been out of line and disrespectful to American politics and the American voters.

Maybe he thinks that since he is a ‘son of the South’ and had such high approval ratings while in office he is above the fray, but I’m here to tell you that especially among those under the age of 35, we have no need to love President Clinton.

We didn’t vote for him, we weren’t politically astute enough to understand his policies, and we do not hold President Clinton as a demigod the way Republicans do Ronald Reagan. President Clinton has stepped over the line.

He has tarnished his own image and the image of his wife, and he may well have pushed her campaign over the edge into obscurity.

Despite all of these vicious attacks up to and on the day of the South Carolina primary, Senator Obama was able to serve up a whopping victory.

He not only claimed a quarter of the white vote, he took more than 80 percent of the black vote. Across the board, he won every age group.

The only important group he didn’t win was white males, which were apparently the only people to vote for former Senator John Edwards. Obama showed that he is able to capture the white vote, the black vote, the female vote, the youth vote, and come Tuesday, he may, with that help of Bill Clinton, come close to winning the nomination (statistically no one can capture the nomination until close to March).

This is not a column supporting Obama. This is not a column to tell you how to vote. This is a column to tell you how I feel about the current politics being played against Senator Obama.

This subtle racism has no place in American politics anymore, and for it to come from a former president is not only shameful but also abhorrent.

Hillary Clinton would make a fine president, but I am beginning to ask myself if she’s worth the baggage that it appears she comes with. (Also, John Edwards is great, it just seems that we are finally past the time when being a white male makes you the best candidate…hallelujah!)