Identity Politics

I'm getting a little sick and tired about the identity politics swirling around the two remaining Democratic candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. This is dividing the party and could potentially hinder the party's chances at winning in the general election come November. If Obama wins, will that anger white women enough to vote for John McCain? If Clinton wins, will that anger the African-American community enough to not show up at the booths? Will Clinton's and Obama's strong supporters be too angered at their candidate's defeat to vote for the other in November?

I think it'd be a very smart move on either of their parts (Obama or Clinton) to assign the other as their running mate when the nomination is decided. This would keep the excitement alive in both the women's and African-American communities, as it would mark the first time that a woman or African-American would be president or vice president of the United States. BUT, if Hillary wins the nomination and decides to go with Joe Lieberman as her running mate or if Obama wins and assigns the duty to Joe Biden, this could alienate some voters on election day.

Of all the years that the Democratic candidate should be able to guarantee a victory on election day, this would be it, yet, they may AGAIN find a way to blow what seemed to be the inevitable. Democrats had the popular vote in 2000 with Al Gore, yet lost to the courts. John Kerry won every debate against George W. Bush and a lot of momentum going into election day in 2004, yet found a way to lose Ohio and the overall election. After 8 years of George W. Bush lies, wars, overspending, indifference to meaningful issues, all but pushing the middle class in with the lower, a Democratic victory is all but a given, right? No, of course not. While recent NBC studies have shown the general public preferring a Democratic President as opposed to a Republican one by a 51-34% margin, John McCain leads Hillary Clinton by a 46-44% count, while McCain is tied with Barack Obama at 42%. While this could be a historic year for the Democratic Party and for America, in electing our first woman or African-American as president, it could also be a historic defeat, as there would be no excuse for the Democratic candidate to fall to the Republican this November. Unfortunately, with the inner division taking place, while identity politics could potentially help make history in our country, it could very well divide the party enough to suffer another general election defeat.