whose candidate is it anyway?

by Steven Doss

Published: May 13, 2008

Howard Dean, the Chairman of the Democratic National Convention, has stated that if no democratic candidate has enough delegates to win the nominations, then the convention will decide who will go up against John McCain. They will not look at the delegate count, they will not look at the popular vote, they will just chose. While this could be a fantastic solution to the problem of having a split convention, the DNC is missing the main point of having an election - giving the people a choice.

Howard Dean fails to realize that in our world, party lines are not really there anymore. More people will vote for a particular candidate rather than a particular party. Most of Barack Obama’s supporters are independent voters that are looking for a candidate that can really offer change and does not give off the vibe of being too “Washington.” If the DNC decides to pick Hillary Clinton because of some sick fetish for pant-suits, you can bet that many of his supporters will decide to go with someone else.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, does not have to deal with being associated with a man who confuses the National Press Club with amateur night at the Apollo. After the recent developments, I’m sure that there will be some people that will approach voting for Barack Obama with some trepidation after the Reverend Wright fiasco. And we know that some PAC out there will be exploiting the good reverend’s rant for all its worth!

But is having a popular candidate really all that important? In the 2000 election, President Bush did not win the popular vote, yet is still the president, which has led to comedian after comedian making the same Bush-is-dumb jokes for the past 7 years. If our main election is actually decided by “electors” who have no legal reason to vote for the same person for whom their State voted (a majority of states do not require the electors to vote for the same person that won the popular vote), what is the point of having a popular vote?

Though I can’t answer that question, I also can’t give up hope that one day we will have a clean-cut election in which the parties choose their candidates on merit, there will be no mudslinging and people will stick to the issues. And on that day Jesus will return and put an end to Armageddon. It’ll be awesome.

Until then, sit back and enjoy the ride that is “Election ‘08.”

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