Potomac Primaries and Conservative Democrats

With the battle of the Potomac over, John McCain has widened his lead on the way to the nomination. But the farther from DC you get, the tighter the race got. At this point, a vote forHuckabee is more a protest against McCain than a vote for the Huckster. Barack Obama, on the other hand, gave Hillary Clinton what I can best describe as a spectacular bitch slap, beating her soundly and surpassing her in the delegate count. Unless the Clinton machine can pull out one of their patented miracles, the Clinton Era will be over. Amen.

So let's contrast our likely November matchup, Barack Obama vs John McCain:

On speaking and inspiring, Obama wins hands down. You cannot listen to Barack speaking without feeling moved, unless of course you listen to the specifics (or lack thereof) of what he is saying. McCain is old, tries to sound like Reagan, and fails to inspire anybody.

On policy, Obama (as best as can be told) is an unabashed liberal, seeking government solutions for every problem imaginable. Eventually he will have to provide specifics, but for now, it's wow. McCain is more conservative than liberal. But his left leaning tends to grab national headlines and be really big slaps in the face of conservatives.

Winning the base is key. Obama and Clinton are duking it out, but the base will rally behind Obama when Hillary is defeated. McCain has the swing voters behind him and will have to spend months (probably futilely) trying to consolidate his base. In the end, he will have to run right while Obama tries to pull the independents over to him.

So this does not bode well for the GOP. Especially with Newt Gingrich's Declaration of Independence for the Conservative Movement. This is essentially a shot across the bow of the Republican party, warning them that if Republicans can't be conservative, then we'll find Democrats that are. I live in small town Ohio, where even the Democrats are pretty conservative. The last Democrat state representative we elected (2000) was as conservative, or even more so, than his Republican opponent. He was also the better politician, despite being only 18 years old. He graduated high school, campaigned through the summer, and was elected before the year was out. He eventually turned Republican, which is proof that kids do grow up eventually.

This could mean that the two parties will go through another change, realigning their positions, redefining themselves. After all, both parties have changed over the last couple of centuries, and have given us what we have now. What will happen next? A good question to end this blog on.