Yes, somebody should…she should. I don’t ever remember hearing anything about ‘Super Delegates’ before in any presidential election. I asked my mom and she couldn’t recall hearing about them before either. Was this a secret that only the Beltway insiders knew about? Or have I been walking around in a fog my whole life? As for John McCain, I have lived in AZ about as long as he has held public office…maybe longer. Remember the Keating savings and loan debacle? His hands weren’t all that clean and I seem to remember the rarely mentioned Bush boy in Colorado whose daddy bought him out of federal prison for his involvement in the whole mess. Hmmmmmm…and why isn’t McCain getting beat up like John Kerry was for having a wife who is independently wealthy from old family money? Hmmmmm…

The people of Indiana are finally happy to have a voice that was silenced for 40 years (the last time they had a primary). Every state should have the right to vote in the primary, and we should not thumb our noses at them. I also remember the days when candidates were selected at the convention. Maybe we need to rethink the primary selection process to include all 50 states before deciding the nominee, and no candidate should drop out. A candidate like Edwards would still be in the race and might have had the opportunity to become the nominee. The problem is that the forces behind both Clinton and Obama are becoming so fanatical that they are creating this illusion about a broken party. And the pro-Obama media is helping to perpetuate this notion. Mrs. Edward’s op-ed piece in the Times addressed how the media never really covered all the candidates equally on issues. No candidate should ever be exalted, just respected. Let it play out because I for one have never found the political process so interesting. More people are registering to vote. And yes, bring on more debates. If a candidate can’t think on their feet, I don’t want to hear excuses why.

Personally I was disappointed that John Edwards dropped out before I could vote for him. This year I think everyone should be able to vote for whomever. What Howard Dean said was that he thought there would be a candidate by the end of June, that superdelegates would continue to reveal who they were supporting, and voters would continue to vote in the remaining contests. I do not think he was calling for anyone to sit out the balance of the primaries. The last primaries are on June 3rd. By the end of June the superdelegates should have a grip on who they are going to support. The convention in Denver in August 25-28th is two months later. That gives everyone some time to regroup, heal, come up with a Veep and get used to it. The candidate with the lesser number of delegates will be important in helping heal the party. I do think that can happen. The only person I think might be wise to stay home a bit more is Bill Clinton. He no longer feels our pain, he feels his own a little to acutely and a little too acerbically. Hillary would be wise to give him something else to do than talk to the press or the public.

Obama is a different kind of candidate than either McCain or Clinton. He transcends dualism and he speaks from a higher level of consciousness and intelligence that the other two don’t even come close to understanding. It is this very reason that he will not win the nomination. This country is not ready for him. The country doesn’t feel the pain enough that the past 8 years has caused. McCain must win the election. If either democrat wins they will have to bear the burden of the past 8 years and be blamed for it as well. If the Republicans remain in office there is no one else that can be blamed for what they have done to this country. — Carol Pilkington 4/29/08 12:10AM