It’s a crucial election year. As another global financial crisis looms and rogue states pursue nuclear weapons, the American people are desperately looking for a strong leader to show them the way to a brighter tomorrow.
So it’s unconscionable that the Democratic primaries have yet to produce a single serious candidate for president.
This election is a great opportunity for the Democrats. After the setbacks the party has suffered, the Tea Party is finally dying down, and people are getting fed up with the Republicans in Congress. If the Democrats could come up with a strong candidate for the White House, he or she would easily win the election.
Yet, for some reason, many of the most promising Democrats chose not to run in the primaries, and those who did run are not appealing candidates. Indeed, the front-runner who has swept the early primary states despite a lack of enthusiastic support, Barack Obama, is just not a viable candidate in the general election.
People were very excited about Obama when he first emerged on the scene in 2008, but as his campaign went on — and as he’s actually served as president — it’s become apparent to the general public that he’s simply not a serious candidate for the job.
For one thing, he has a flimsy record with no useful experience that would help him do the job. He’s mainly known for being a community organizer and an undistinguished legislator. The only work he’s done that might relate to being president — his three years actually in the office — has hardly created a record he’d want to tout during the campaign.
The fact is, Obama is clearly unelectable. Polls show his policies are unpopular with the American people at large, and even many Democrats aren’t thrilled. While the American people are worried about jobs, Obama seems aloof to those concerns and just keeps talking about such left-wing boilerplate as taxing the rich and green energy.
At the same time, many in the Democratic base have begun doubting whether he’s a true liberal, because they feel he hasn’t followed through on their agenda.
So as the nominee, Obama will face an American people alienated by policies, while an unenthusiastic base halfheartedly supports him. Democrats could face a huge disaster.
The party establishment must be horrified to see Obama cruise through the primary, but there aren’t any other good candidates for it to coalesce behind. It’s probably too late for someone like Hillary Clinton to jump in and save the day, so the only hope the Democrats have left is a brokered convention.
This may anger some, but it’s past time for the adults in the Democratic Party to seize control of things and keep the party from throwing away any chances it has.
The primaries are supposed to be to find the strongest candidate for the general election, but that route is simply failing for the Democrats this time. The Republican primary field has at least offered a few options people can imagine doing a decent job as president, but the reason for Obama’s easy success so far in the Democratic primaries (the fact that he’s the incumbent) means no one will be able to imagine that about the Democratic nominee.
Democratic voters must be looking to the Republican field with envy. Having a few potentially bad choices certainly beats having just a single horrible one.
Political satirist Fr
ank J. Fleming’s e-book, “Obama: The Greatest President in the History of Everything,” is out from HarperCollins.