OBAMA+CLINTON+EDWARDS

What our nation needs is Obama+Clinton+Edwards - and the money we’ll waste between now and the Convention.

A blogger wrote that his son didn’t know the difference between baseball and politics. Why couldn’t the Dems just trade Bill for the Repubs’ John M? He has a point. Two points really. This election season is too long, too expensive, to divisive and too much like Ford vs Chevvy vs Prius.

First the cost vs benefit of these primaries. A year and a half ramp up to the Conventions tips elections out of democracy and into spectacle. Other democracies spend far less time and money on candidate selection and far more time hashing out a shared platform. Election season is short and to the point. Our process promises to top a billion http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/index.asp by the time all the media buys, travel, staff, printing, venue and consultants costs are paid off. A once every four years injection into the economy for… the airlines, media companies, venues (stadiums and auditoriums and theaters) and high paid operatives. Affordable housing anyone?

This campaign feels more like a national focus group for a product than a debate on substantive issues. It’s now framed as experience vs hope. Policies align almost exactly http://www.grist.org/candidate_chart_08.html?source=weekly. So the nation is getting, for the millions allocated to campaigns rather than something functional (like paying down the debt that’s drowning us), a sustained study of our psyche and voting on who WE are, not what the candidates promise and will produce. It’s more like the Mac vs PC debate than the Single Payer Health Care System vs Private Health Care Paid for by Private Insurance debate.

If I were anywhere near my caucus place I’d vote for Obama because he will give us a window of opportunity for making amends to the world for our atrocious and alienating end of Empire behavior. He can heal. And we sorely need that. However, right after that window we’ll need Clinton and her whole machine to ram through legislation that will fix problems. Looking at the voting patterns, I see that many of the people with real needs – elderly, women, poor, latinos – are voting Clinton. The hope they want is results. We need a mother and a preacher. An operative and an inspirer. Working together.

This is my second point. The Repubs team has shrewdly closed ranks around McCain and is going to stand by looking like grown ups while the Dems rip one another to pieces in the next few months and exhaust their campaign chests. Eventually one will win the nomination, but the other one will have given the Repubs all their talking points about what’s wrong with the winning candidate. The Dems in the next months will run the Repubs focus groups for free.

The shrewd and wise move would be for Clinton, Obama and Edwards to work out a deal right now. I’d opt for a Clinton/Obama ticket. Both for President. And Edwards for VP. Let’s face it. The nation needs balanced leadership. We’d have in the co-presidents and VP all the polarities held in a unified group we need. Masculine and feminine. Black and white. Fighter and uniter. Maturity in these times is all about reconciliation of opposites. Eventually we need to figure out how to have a wise council of leaders in such complex times, not a decider. Without the party uniting now we’ll have:

• McCain looking mature and the Dems looking like brawling kids
• A man who went to war and will continue war looking like the wise elder
• Hundreds of millions more wasted on in fighting when it could be spent on a consequential campaign
• Acrimony and disappointment and disaffection among currently mobilized Dems who dearly want to participate in a democracy that works, fixes what’s wrong, heals the nation, serves all interests and gets American back to being our best.

By uniting NOW Dems could upstage this Repub move and produce an end run (hmm, football again) and a big Goal. That being wisdom, not winning. That being prudence and frugality, not outspending. Okay, I know it’s unlikely and I’m just one voice and few will read this, but on this Washington State Caucus day I needed to say it.