As of the beginning of October of 2007, Senator Hillary Clinton is the front runner of the Democratic Party. Barack Obama is a distant second; and no one even comes close to the amount of money they raised so far, or the support they enjoy. Unless they do something really stupid, it’s all but guaranteed that we will have a Clinton/Obama ticket from the democrat’s side for ‘08. And why not? Hillary will have Bill Clinton to back her up, and after seven years of Bush in the White House, he looks an even better of a president than he did when he stepped down. If you liked Bill Clinton, this is the closest you are going to get to have him as the president again. If you are woman, it will be hard to justify to vote for anyone else and miss out on the chance to make history. If you are black, you are in the same shoes because of Obama. These factors unite liberals in a way that they didn’t even come close to in 2004.
Republicans played well on the fears of people of an other terrorist attack and for them George W. Bush was the perfect candidate. So, he was reelected. But, the table seemed to have turned. Republicans have been on the defensive for a long time now. Aside the from Iraq, which has proved to be an unmitigated disaster, there are other issues that weakened the party and divided it’s ranks and alienated its core supporters. Gay sex scandals have been in the fore front dealing blow after blow to the political party that is supposed to be big on values. On top of everything, the front runners for the Republican side are Rudy Giuliani, a pro-choice, for-gay-rights cross dresser; and the flip-flopping Mormon Mitt Romney. The Christian right even threatened to boycott the candidates by going for a third party candidate, that, in the opinion of many, would all but hand the presidency to Hillary Clinton on a sliver platter. It would create a similar situation to what happened to Al Gore in 2000 because of Ralph Nader.
Furthermore, a few of long time Republican law makers have announced that they were retiring, which usually makes it easier for the opposing candidate to then take. It may be possible that house will also go to the Democrats. With Hillary in the Oval Office, they will be free to do whatever they want just like Republicans did in the past seven years. While it is almost always in the best interest of the country to have a certain level of balance in the leadership so things can remain in check, an all democratic leadership may provide the change of pace that a lot of people have been waiting for.
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