Where do we go from here?

[illusionofjoy]

As of last night, the Obama/Biden ticket was made official. It was sealed with a kiss against the backdrop of a Greek temple in a venue more suited to a pop concert than an acceptance speech by the presidential nominee of the "party of the working class." Limping and cheating his way across the finish line with rigged caucuses, stolen delegates and an aborted roll call vote of strong-armed delegates which provided no closure, leaving only a sense of "what if," Barack Obama and Joe Biden are now officially the Democratic Party's nominees for President and Vice President of the United States.

Soon, John McCain will officially be the republican party's nominee for President, his delegate lead obtained legitimately with no questions about whether or not he is actually entitled to the position. As of today, McCain's running mate will be Alaska governor Sarah Palin. This unexpected move on McCain's part brings back some of his old maverick magic while giving the Democrats a poke in the eye. Effectively, he is saying, "your party is making history, but so is my party. Furthermore, I do not fear having a woman on my ticket." The Democrats dropped the ball and McCain picked it up for the republican team, making a play which just may result in a slam dunk in November.

John McCain, in choosing Sarah Palin has done what Barack Obama failed to do in his announcement of Joe Biden: he's gotten people talking. Nobody really talked about Obama's choice of Biden beyond the fact that it happened; Ted Rall, in a recent column even mentioned how the lack of excitement generated by Biden (as opposed to Biden himself) was part of the problem with Obama's current campaign:

There's nothing wrong with Joe Biden. He's a safe pick--experienced and smart, he offers foreign policy cred to make up for Obama's short resume. Biden will be a good attack dog, assuming the campaign decides to use him as such. But he's an uninspired and uninspiring choice.

Personally, I'm glad Obama didn't pick Hillary. She would have overshadowed him. John Edwards, my pick for president in the primaries and for veep after he dropped out, has been hobbled by the revelation that he had an affair (with the apparent consent of his wife, but whatever). But either Clinton or Edwards would have been a better choice than Joe Biden. They're different, they're controversial, they're...a change. Unlike Biden, people would have talked about them.

And people are talking about Sarah Palin.

So, the board is set up and all of the pieces are in place; the game begins in earnest. As voters, barring defections to write-ins and third parties, we have two choices: reward the Democratic Party for their reprehensible behavior during the primaries or reward the republican party for their reprehensible behaviour for...as long as I've been alive, at least.

I will be the first to admit that, frankly, these two choices suck. I will also be the first to admit that I refuse to waste my vote on a write-in or third party in some flaccid form of protest hobbled by the reality of simple majority tallies filtered through the "winner take all" precedent that is the Electoral College vote. If the election were held today, I would vote for the McCain/Palin ticket because I am disgusted with what the Democratic Party has pulled during this election season and I think they need some time in the corner to think about what they've done. I would vote downticket for Democrats, as I believe it would be important to try and keep McCain in check should he win by expanding the Democratic membership in the House to what would hopefully be a veto-proof majority. However, I do not trust Obama at this juncture and do not believe that he deserves to be in the White House.

Obviously, this "plan" is not foolproof. I strongly believe that this country is headed in the wrong direction and is in desperate need of a progressive leader. Unfortunately, Obama has shown himself to be not a progressive, but an opportunistic self-aggrandiser. With John McCain we know exactly what we are getting and it is not going to be a pleasant four years for us liberals. However, it is my hope that McCain, hopefully gridlocked by a Democratic majority in the House, will be unable to commit heinous acts of regression and simply maintain the status quo (awful as that may be).

The risk, of course is that Obama could have hurt the Democratic brand so much that downticket races are affected and we don't have a McCain buffer. Furthermore, McCain might end up being a popular President, which would impede efforts to get a Democrat (be it Hillary Clinton or someone equally qualified who is not Barack Obama) into the White House in 2012. Even if McCain decided to eschew running for a second term, that would leave Sarah Palin as a contender, and given her high approval rating as Alaska's governor, I think she'd be a formidable opponent.

So, is there anything that could get me to vote Obama/Biden in 2008? I'm tempted to say that Obama would have to completely reinvent himself and his campaign for me to even considering moving my finger above his name as I stand in the booth in November. In reality, Barack Obama can not change who he is and what he's done and I don't know if I can ever forgive this illegitimate nominee just as I can never forgive George W. Bush.

Some good faith gestures on Obama's part - a sign that he wants me and my ilk as part of the Democratic Party and doesn't just want to harvest us for our votes - would be appreciated. He needs to come down off of his cloud and get his feet dirty with us "bitter gun clingers" and we "low information voters." Somehow he needs to express that he understands and cares about the concerns of the working class and somehow convince people that he will follow through on making life better for us.

Obama needs to embrace being a Democrat. No more "bipartisan" bullshit - the republicans don't play that game. They play a game called "winner take all." Obama should revel in being a Democrat and forge boldly forth with the tenets of liberalism. This means admitting that his FISA vote was a mistake, along with his vote on the Cheney energy bill. On whatever legislation may be coming up, he needs to take a left-leaning position and stick to it. No more pandering and triangulating - it doesn't work.

The big thing Obama needs to do, however, is condemn the ugliness of the primary. This means that he has to admit that Hillary Clinton did not run a dirty or ugly campaign. He needs to own up to his surrogates smearing the Clinton's as racists and thoroughly disavow their behaviour. He needs to condemn the mainstream media for their bias and sexism instead of revelling in it. Most of all, he needs to push to reform the primaries, not in his own image (which right now means keeping the caucuses and reducing the powers of the superdelegates), but in a way that is fair to all Democratic voters - that means, no more caucuses and no more preferential treatment in delegate allotments.

Overall, Obama needs to own up to the fact that he didn't win fair and square, that he is an imperfect candidate and that he is a mortal human being just like the rest of us. Obama needs to become a humble candidate of the people, rather than a candidate who portrays himself as above the people if he wants any chance of getting my vote. All of this is infinitely unlikely, to put it mildly. Still, it hurts to be unable to support a Democrat for President in 2008 and it would be very refreshing if Barack Obama would start an honest sentence with two words: "I'm sorry."