Friday, March 21, 2008

Once-in-a-lifetime!

Finally a Democrat has had enough guts to stand up and make and endorsement. If you haven't heard Bill Richardson made a glowing endorsement for Obama calling him, "a once-in-a-lifetime leader." This cannot be good for Hillary, who has been leading in the latino vote. Plus as a superdelegate, Richardson's decision might have sway over fellow superdelegates in the coming weeks. Despite the recent personal attacks and polarizing comments about race, Obama seems to be holding up quite well to scrutiny. Maybe Dems waited to see if Obama could handle attacks that were bound to come in a general election? Maybe the political posturing for VP is starting to quiet down? Whatever the reason, the closer the Dems get to a nominee is great for the party. While Pennsylvania is still a few weeks away, the Democrats really need to take this time and look at the bigger picture. In my opinion, Bill Richardson's decision was the first step for Democrats in realizing that the White House is what is most important. 

3 comments:

BF said...

Is the White House really the most important? I think we might over popularize the position… Sure, today the executive branch does retain a great deal of power and responsibility. But, does that benefit our democracy more? Can a single office (or person with a great deal of assistants) really handle all of the issues that face a U.S. President today? I'm not convinced.

Marc V said...

Great points. But the Executive Branch does wield a considerable amount of power, especially in elastic clauses (recently used by George W. Bush, patriot act) not specifically stated in the constitution. Plus in the international community, our Congress means buttkiss, therefore it is crucial that we have a new president that can repair the damage done by the current administration. I don't think that one person can handle all of the issues facing our nation, but at one point or another, they all come across a single desk, agree?

JamesBedell said...

I'm going to have to chime in on this one. I think our view of the presidency and the executive branch is largely warped from and imbalanced from what our constitutional framers intended. We take it as a given today that the president sets the policy agenda for the nation. This was not the case pre-FDR.

While it is foolish to underestimate the importance of the presidential election particularly, THIS presidential election, I think as a citizenry we need to seek out strong young technocratic members of congress to get out ahead of issues facing our nation and set the policy agenda.