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For African-Americans who lived through the tumultous 60s and had to fight for civil rights wouldn’t have believed if you told them that a black person would have a realistic chance of winning the White House. The Internet is rife with nostalgic stories of people remembering those days and remarking at the amazing distance the country has come since then. But of course, as primaries in West Virginia and Kentucky showed, racism is not entirely wiped off and probably will never be. Pockets of old school thinking and sense of entitlement remain but such beliefs are definitely waning. This generation post-Vietnam post-Cold War had never had any feeling of accomplishment or anything challenging to look forward to. This White House administration in fact managed to do what it had promised to do in 2000; uniting America although it did so against the establishment akin to sticking it to the man. Anyone noticing the constrast between McCain and Obama speeches on Tuesday (not just in speech making) knows that Republicans have an uphill task this year.
The final hurdle in uniting Democrats, Hillary Clinton’s continued run for the nomination in spite of dwindling chances of achieving it, will fall this Saturday. Her email to prominent supporters and media makes it amply clear that she will formally drop out of the race and endorse Obama this Saturday although I will believe it only when I hear it from her on live television. Her speech on Tuesday post-completion of all primaries left much to be desired and she lost the opportunity to go out on a high note after winning South Dakota. Even her staunch supporters like PA Guv Ed Rendell criticized her for trying to negotiate with a Presidential candidate for the Veep spot. The treatment of her 17-million voters as her personal bargaining chip did not go down well with anyone and has in fact strengthened Obama’s position on not picking her as his Veep. Although it can be a political decision at times (Kennedy-Johnson), picking a vice-president is considered a personal preference best left to the nominee since it is the highest office in the land that is not subject to a direct election. Picking a Veep this season is already a tough decision so any attempt by Clinton to blackmail Obama doesn’t go down well with the party and Obama’s campaign.
Come this Saturday, we’ll hopefully see the end of an interesting primary season and the launch of one of the most significant general election in recent times given the implications for the rest of the world. Let the games begin.
by Patrix | on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 2:02 pm | 
Current Affairs, Politicking, United States . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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June 5th, 2008 at 11:16 pm reply
Its going to be interesting next few months for Obama - I am looking forward to debates already - they are so much fun hehe.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:20 pm reply
Supremus, it definitely promises to be an interesting contest. Obama’s campaign will not be as docile as Kerry’s but at the same time, promises to keep it civil are at least being touted by both sides.