Reply #41: Agreed. They have to report on the winner [View All]

[DemBones DemBones]

of the primaries . And they're doing a pretty good job of covering all the campaigns on primary nights. Larry King did brief interviews with Kucinich and Sharpton last night. Then Larry asked David Gergen, Bob Dole, Bill Schneider, and Wolf Blitzer why candidates like Kucinich and Sharpton stay in the race. Schneider was chuckling as he pointed out that they'd just gotten on Larry King's show and had a bit of time to discuss their messages. He's right because that's how the game is played.

I keep thinking that if more people heard Kucinich's message, more would vote for him, but I'm coming to the conclusion that most people are more conservative than I am. Before you say "Duh!" what I'm saying is that I think many more people agree with Kucinich than vote for him. (This may be true of Dean, too.) One reason that has been discussed in relation to all the candidates is electability.

But beyond that, I think that some people who agree with DK but don't vote for him make that choice because they think it would be too much of a shock to put him in power and have so many changes accomplished in a short time. Even if they feel that they themselves can handle rapid change, they're unsure that the rest of society can handle it. Perhaps they're right, perhaps people are dizzy from the sudden sprint to the right we've seen since 2000 and can't take a huge swing to the left this year.

Thus the voters are looking at all the horses in the stable Mairead spoke of and asking themselves which horse can win the race and, upon taking power, restore the country to a sort of normalcy. Someone last night described John Kerry as a professional and a "plodder" who knows how to get things done. Maybe that's what we need in the immediate future, someone who'll methodically undo the damage done to our Constitution, federal budget, and foreign policy, and begin implementing some of the changes that are needed. When the country is stabilized, we can start making progress again. Sounds slow and boring, I know, but it may be necessary.