Likewise would the millions of young people under 30 that Obama has succeeded in drawing to the polls in unprecedented numbers on his platform of change -- a feat that George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic nominee who ran on an anti-Vietnam War platform, failed to achieve in 1972.
McGovern, who previously supported Clinton, now supports Obama.
The fact is, Obama's campaign of change has resulted in record-breaking increases in Democratic voter registration -- and turnout in Democratic primaries. Indeed, total votes cast in the Democratic contests to date have outnumbered votes cast in the Republican primaries by such an overwhelming margin that despite having secured the GOP nomination weeks ago, there remains deep dissatisfaction among Republicans with their nominee-elect -- especially among hard-line social conservatives linked to the Religious Right.
It's no secret that Clinton has the highest negative ratings among the three major presidential candidates still in the race, with polls consistently showing up to half of general-election voters vowing that they won't vote for Clinton under any circumstances.
It's also no secret that the Republicans have been gearing up -- indeed, salivating -- for a fall campaign against Clinton for more than four years. Not to mention those independent right-wing "527" groups, whose attack ads against the Democratic nominee are beyond the control of the McCain campaign.
On the other hand, because Obama is a relative newcomer to the national political stage, there isn't much for the GOP and its allies to use against him, a task made all the more harder by being saddled with a deeply unpopular lame-duck president, a deeply unpopular war in Iraq and a tanking economy -- the latter being as deadly to the party controlling the White House politically as kryptonite is to Superman physically.
In this blogger's opinion, discomfort with the thought of Bill Clinton once again roaming the halls of the White House has a lot to do with Hillary Clinton's high negative ratings -- not to mention a continuation of the Bush-Clinton "dynasty" 20 years after George Bush, the elder, won the White House in 1988.
It's time for someone other than a Bush or a Clinton to be given the keys to the White House.
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Volume III, Number 31
Copyright 2008, Skeeter Sanders. All rights reserved.
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