The 2008 presidential campaign began way too early and, as a result, the mud-slinging has begun early. The candidates started saying the most reckless things they could about their opponent. All of a sudden, it seemed that Barack Obama has been targeted by supporters of Hillary Clinton.There was supposed to be a truce between the two candidates. Apparently no one told Bill Clinton or Bob Johnson, who seemed to lick their chops at the opportunity to attack Obama. Obama is by no means innocent, though, since he was more than happy to attack anyone who felt the need to come after him. It has gotten a little sad that the two candidates who have the best chance of winning the nomination of their party are the ones who seem the most comfortable with breaking down their counterpart.
John Edwards is the only Democrat benefiting from the Clinton-Obama feuding. Edwards has slithered under the radar and can attack each of them when it’s convenient for him to do so. Meanwhile, he has not been the target of this sort of attack campaigning. If Clinton and Obama are not careful, Edwards will slide in undetected and win the nomination.
On top of all this mud-slinging, you may notice that it is significantly quieter on the Republican side. It’s simply because they figured out that maybe they need not fight each other and should just focus on beating the Democrats. Not to say that they aren’t fighting with each other. It just hasn’t been as ugly or as widely publicized as those in the Democratic Party.
And where exactly are the independents? Everyone who follows politics should remember when H. Ross Perot was able to put a slight dent in the final election returns. There hasn’t been a truly viable independent since Perot. Nobody has seen Ralph Nader as a threat in the last two elections. As a result, he was simply ignored by the political process and the mainstream media. That may have, in effect, been worse than any attack ad about him.
We live in one of the greatest countries in the world. At the same time, I’ll be damned if our political process isn’t extremely flawed. The whole process almost seems too vicious to be real at times, and it could make some voters wonder if Vince McMahon is behind the scenes, choreographing the whole ugly affair. Since the politicians want to behave like monsters to get our vote, maybe that thing from Cloverfield should run.