I Won't Say I Told You So

Well, the polls are finally catching up with what I've been saying for months (to anyone who asked and a few who didn't). Hillary is a stronger candidate and much greater threat to the GOP chances in November than Obama. As of Friday, Gallup had McCain up six points over Obama, but up only one over Clinton. And Rasmussen had the McCain v. Obama lead at five points with Hillary leading McCain by one.

For the Dem nomination, Gallup has the candidates tied and Rasmussen has Clinton up by three. However, the buzz on the Dem street is that black voters will blow a group gasket and go AWOL (or vote for McCain) if Hillary gets the nomination. I don't claim to understand what would cause a voter to switch to the other party's candidate (and ditch their chosen party platform) if Their Man doesn't win the nomination, even when polls show that man CAN'T win the Big Race. I suppose it's another example of Ideology trumping Reason. As Nicholas Wapschott (of the New York Sun) said in his recent op-ed “The Limits of Idealism:”

"Yet Mr. Obama has one thing in his favor: the predilection of ideologically driven supporters to fall in love with a losing candidate. The Democratic party’s virgin foot soldiers put more value on intention than achievement and prefer purity to pragmatism. They consider idealistic perfection more important than tainted electability. They are often natural oppositionists who prefer to complain from a position of self-righteous impotence than make the grubby compromises needed to win and to govern."

Some situations do call for a staunch commitment to Ideology over pragmatism, but these instances rarely arise in politics. Our primary process and two-party system is what it is; our electoral choice often boils down to which candidate we hope will mess up the least amount of stuff for the least amount of money; and petulance, pouting, and spurning the voting booth helps nothing and no one.