Electability

You can’t govern, if you don’t win. The important thing to remember is that we are very early into this election cycle and no one really has a clue what the electorate will do when the time comes. As much as I identify with the aspirations of Senators Clinton and Obama wanting to change history, the fact remains. Are they electable?

One must not get caught up in all the pre-election year hype. Anyone familiar with the electoral process in America knows that it is not who is ahead in March 07 but who is ahead in March 08 and beyond. How many immensely popular candidates early on have withered when the voters begin to ask the tough questions? Right now the media and the public are caught up in “feel good” stories to overcome the growing anxiety of Iraq and the myriad of other issues that we are facing as a nation. Witness the media frenzy over the death of a woman whose only talent was self-hype and the ability to marry an aging billionaire. It is good copy to have those two other candidates as frontrunner's; it allows us as a nation to feel that we have overcome the barriers of gender and race. We can pat ourselves on the backs and say how glad we are to be over those hurdles. The reality of course is somewhat different from the perception. It doesn’t matter how good your ideas or how solid your platform, if you don’t win you don’t get to institute your policies. In politics, there are no moral victories. Either you win or you lose and no one knows it better than the Dems after eight years of George W. Let them have their 15 minutes, in the mean time we will be creating a groundswell waiting to erupt when the time is right. And of course the media will be caught completely off-guard and will wonder where all this support and those victories came from and of course we will just give them that knowing smile.

For those with very short memories, the majority of party nominees were not leading in any poll prior to the primaries (i.e. Howard Dean). A few of them were not even known to the general public (i.e. Bill Clinton) beyond their regions or states. No ladies this party is just starting. What we should be doing is making sure we are dotting our I(s) and crossing our T(s). We should be shoring up our grass roots organizations, because these groups are the ones who get people elected (i.e. George W. Bush) not polls. We should continue to stress individual contributions as well as the larger donors to build the war chest necessary to overcome all the hype and keep the Senator out front and visible.

We need to position Senator Edwards in the right place for when the smoke clears, and make no mistake as we get closer to the appointed time the smoke will clear, so he will be able to accept the mantle and carry us to victory. No folks, Senator Edwards is where he is suppose to be, building a grass roots organization and campaign, creating policy and priorities, laying the groundwork for after the beauty pageant. Let us not lose hope because of the media frenzy. Let us do as our candidate has done in the past, let us roll up our sleeves and pour our foundation for victory. People elect Presidents, not polls.