Published: April 15, 2008 10:20 am            

Column: Bill’s right, Democrats, chill out

ANDERSON, Ind. — Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are fighting tooth and nail for the Democratic presidential nomination. Both are attacking and counterattacking each other full bore as the primary season winds down.

Both have been in Pennsylvania s of late, jockeying for Keystone votes in the April 22 primary. Then comes Indiana and North Carolina on May 6. Clinton and Obama have been making the rounds in Indiana. Not only Hillary, but Bill and Chelsea have made numerous Hoosier state appearances. Obama visited Indiana last week with his wife Michelle touring the state this week. They give rousing speeches and take potshots at their opponent.

To mainstream Democrats, all the animosity between Clinton and Obama — this chess game of strategy and defense — is harmful to the party. Oh, if this keeps up, say shivering Democrats, Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, will waltz to the White House. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Although I can understand Democrats being fearful (after all, they have been at their most spineless the last eight years), this election, like the last two, will be theirs to lose. The humiliation of losing to George W. Bush twice is now encoded in Democrats’ DNA.

But what’s going on this year is refreshing. This is politics at its best. There are two fine candidates (I still wish John Edwards was in the mix) who are closer to each other in ideology than either will admit. Though they are steering down the middle of the road, both are putting forth progressive policies concerning the economy and Bush’s vanity war. Americans are having a difficult time making up their minds. That’s not a split party. That’s a party looking for the best candidate instead of anointing some double-speaking patsy like John Kerry four years ago.   

The Democrats in 2004, and with Al Gore in 2000, wanted someone who could appeal most prominently to the Republicans. Hopefully those suicidal blunders are a thing of the past. Whatever candidate the Democrats choose this summer, he or she must not acquiesce to McCain and play ball on his terms. Taking back America from eight years of lawlessness, corruption and imperialism is going to require bold approaches.

Clinton and Obama are building support now. They’re inspiring voters who are getting out to register. Let them fight it out. When one is picked, however, the Democrats, and even some Republicans, will be behind them because the alternative - more Republican rule - is unthinkable.

I was recently speaking to an African-American woman in the community, Rosetta Minnefield, and asked her what she thought of the race. She called Obama her man, but she also likes Hillary and will give her support to whichever candidate prevails.

President Clinton was right when he said that Democrats need to chill out and let the process play out. Those Democrats, such as the ones in Congress who are telling Hillary to throw in the towel to maintain party unity, are the same ones who vote to give Bush everything he wants. They want to play it safe. Doing so, they compromise their vision by focusing on the short-term. In a time when bold thinking and actions are needed, they’d rather genuflect to the GOP. 

The primary process is galvanizing Democrats. They’re feeling better about their party than they have in years and demonstrating that by signing up to vote. Young people are registering in droves because they are inspired by Obama and Clinton but mostly Obama.

These are the Democrats who will be ready to take on McCain. Nothing will change for the GOP. They’ll be in the business of character assassination and make it all about how great the war is and terrorism in general. As in 2004, Republicans will be trying to win this thing by preying on America’s fears. The Republicans will also do their best to tamper with the election -- a practice they’ve become masters of in the past two races.

McCain is the perfect messenger for this. Being basically a dolt, he knows that he likes war best. He’ll run a one-note campaign that the Democrats should be able to swat away if they have the nerve to take him on.

The Democratic candidate will have to be forceful in his or her denunciation of the politics of fear. How the candidate does this will tell how far they’ll go in November. Just like 2004, there will be an uptick in terrorist threats as the contest moves into the fall. It’s all Republicans know how to do.

The country could be lucky in that respect: The economy is so terrible that people might ignore the cries of hate and war issued by the GOP.



Stephen Dick writes for The Herald Bulletin in Anderson, Ind. He can be reached at steve.dick@heraldbulletin.com.

        

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