The Nation: When's the Idea Primary?

[babylonsister]

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkpg=http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070319/borosage&linkid=31549

When's the Idea Primary?

Robert L. Borosage


Will Hillary apologize for her vote on Iraq? Will Obama disavow David Geffen's gibe at Bill's character? Should Edwards have hired and/or fired the blasphemous bloggers Swift-boated by the wing nuts of the right? Who can match Hillary's muscle and machine? Will Obama sweep the Facebook primary? The 2008 presidential election isn't for another twenty months, but coverage has already descended to tabloid sensation and horse-race handicapping.

To quote John Edwards, it doesn't have to be this way. The 2008 election has the potential to mark a dramatic turn. For the first time in decades, there is no incumbent or logical successor. Americans have clearly turned their backs on the follies and failures of the Bush Administration and the right-wing extremes it represents. People are worried, mad and looking for a new way forward. With Democrats on the rise, the A team is on the field and the leading candidates--Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards--stir passion and mobilize energy.

The election comes when the challenges the country faces are increasingly stark. Iraq is lost, and we are racking up trade deficits and foreign debts that can't be sustained. Our broken healthcare system is bankrupting families and the government alike, while lack of investment in everything from schools to sewers makes America less competitive and less habitable. Corporations are shredding the social contract as inequality grows. Al Gore won an Oscar for telling the inconvenient truth that catastrophic climate change is a danger, real and present. The list goes on.

[Demeter]

1. The Mainstream Media Will Beat Any Idea that Emerges To Death

long before they will permit any rational discussion of one.