Rancor, acrimony, divisiveness, hurt feelings. This bitterly contested nomination campaign is drawing blood on both sides, and may be costing us the presidency. But maybe not.
Paul Begala appeared on CNN earlier this week and was asked about the damage the long primary was doing, and his answer was remarkable because of what he didn't say. To paraphrase - We are seeing record breaking numbers of new Democratic party voter registrations, and party organization being built up where none existed before. Having this party apparatus and hordes of new voters in place come November will mitigate any advantage McCain has had by being allowed to sit in the cheap seats eating popcorn. I had expected him to say something about this all being a positive for Hillary, his candidate, but he only talked about party building. He only said that Hillary is committed to the race until all the votes are counted, which means at least through Puerto Rico.
That means contested primaries all the way to the end, which means party building in all those late states that have never bothered to do so before. My question is this: If Hillary or Barack (take your pick which one) concedes in mid-June, and is able to completely convince her/his supporters that this is the right thing to do, best for the party, best for the country, best chance to win in November, etc., will the long fight have ended up being a good thing after all?
Discuss...
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