Wednesday, March 05, 2008



The big day

So, this is it - the big day, the final showdown, when Texas and Ohio will together decide whether Clinton or Obama win the Democratic nomination. Except they might not, because neither has the decisive lead required to win a majority of delegates at the convention, and the Democrat's use of a proportional system means neither is likely to. So instead at the end of the day we'll probably see Obama grow his lead by a little bit, but not by so much that he could lose on superdelegate votes at the convention.

Meanwhile, some Democrats are beginning to worry about a long and divisive primary and talking about trying to end it. Piss off. Strong competition between candidates strengthens democracy, not weakens it, and it has also built interest - turnout in Texas is expected to be the highest it has ever been (mainly because, for once, their votes actually matter). That isn't a bad thing at all - it means the candidate (whichever one wins) will have been thoroughly tested, and voters will have been energised. I'd have thought that a self-proclaimed "democratic" party would regard these as Good Things, not bad ones.