Hats in the Ring
I am disheartened to hear that Ralph Nader will run again, although I’m not particularly fearful he will siphon votes from the Democrats, just that he will disrupt the campaign overall, a problem in this election year because of the issue of “electability,” a point of analysis being applied to candidates I’d much rather see fade from view sooner than the July convention. Nader’s contention that Washington DC has been hijacked by corporate interests has particular validity with the present administration, but economic forces private and public have been driving government from the beginning, and I don’t see Nader as the man to change that even a little bit. I wanted to like Gore for President four years ago, but he did everything he could to make that difficult (and so did Lieberman, which is probably worse, since it amounted to sand-bagging his running mate). I may end up having to like Kerry over Edwards or Dean, but I think that will be easier to stomach, and Nader’s message this time around only serves to make the choice more palatable.

Part of my point of view this year is a development from having taken a more active part in the campaign than I ever have before. Political activism for me has always been that I have voted in every election since I turned eighteen, but this year M. and I travelled out to Annandale to attend the Democrats Abroad Australia caucus. There were only nineteen eligible Americans there (and a couple of Australian “observers”), but the organizers ran the session well and the participants were all committed individuals spanning the political viewpoints in the field from Kerry to Kuchinch (no Sharpton supporters, though). There were only enough members to generate ¼ of a vote at the international caucus to be held in Edinburgh in March, but the process was fascinating, much different than just voting in a primary, and our 0.25% goes to Kerry, although it was a pretty near thing. I’m not sure why the Kuchinch and Edwards voters (3 each) transferred en masse to Kerry instead of Dean, but I think it came down to “electability ” again. The perception of Kuchinich as too weird and of Edwards as too inexperienced or unseasoned was balanced against Dean’s anger without taking his message sufficiently into account to my mind, leaving the field to Kerry. My sense of the campaign is that it will come down to Kerry and Edwards for just these reasons and that this is why Kerry will walk away with the nomination. He might need a new theme song, though (Dean’s was better)