{"id":2800,"date":"2008-01-30T15:07:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-30T21:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/dem-nomination-process-degrades-into-immaturity\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:47:18","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:47:18","slug":"dem-nomination-process-degrades-into-immaturity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/dem-nomination-process-degrades-into-immaturity\/","title":{"rendered":"Dem nomination process degrades into immaturity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve been disappointed and stunned during the last couple of weeks to see the Democratic Party\u2019s presidential nominating process degrade into a disgraceful display of immaturity.<\/a> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

After all, we\u2019re talking about electing a commander-in-chief, not a middle-school student-body president.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Cheap shots and negative attacks have come to define the Democratic Party\u2019s nominating process \u2013 a contest that had been previously characterized by the fact that the talent pool was so deep that even experienced candidates like Bill Richardson<\/a> and Joe Biden<\/a> couldn\u2019t compete.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A few examples:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u2022 During a nasty exchange between Barack Obama<\/a> and Hillary Clinton<\/a> at last week\u2019s debate, Obama said he was working as a community organizer and watching American jobs go oversees while Clinton was \u201ca corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal Mart,\u201d implying he has worked to help Americans who were losing their jobs while Clinton was involved in moving jobs to other countries.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Clinton shot back during the same exchange, saying she was fighting against Republicans while Obama was a lawyer representing a campaign contributor\u2019s \u201cslum landlord business in inner-city Chicago,\u201d implying that Obama has helped the rich take advantage of the poor while she fought against that.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u2022 Bill Clinton<\/a>, acting as a representative of his wife\u2019s campaign, dismissed Obama\u2019s huge win in South Carolina<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> this weekend by saying Jesse Jackson<\/a> won that state\u2019s primaries in 1984 and 1988.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

After a week of racially charged campaigning he helped set off, that was Bill Clinton\u2019s parting thought? Of course, he\u2019ll say, he didn\u2019t mean it as a racial jab. It\u2019s just coincidence that Obama is black and Jackson<\/st1:city> is black and South Carolina<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> has a huge black population, of which 80 percent voted for Obama.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But let\u2019s be honest. It was a cheap shot and a racial jab from a former president of the United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, a man who this nation has entrusted with its economy, its relations with other nations and its nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

So we have a former president and the most credible female and black presidential candidates in history acting like 12-year-old boys on a school playground, thumping their chests and tossing insults at each other.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The nastiness is coloring nearly every statement from either campaign that\u2019s related to the other campaign.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Why do politics bring out the worst in people? Clinton and Obama have been inspiring record levels of participation in the early presidential nominating contests. Interest in both campaigns has dwarfed that of any of the Republican candidates. The nastiness is counterproductive.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Now they\u2019re competing for New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>, whose Democrats will choose between Clinton, Obama and John Edwards on Tuesday. The nastiness that put a stranglehold on South Carolina<\/st1:state> has already reached the Land<\/st1:placetype> of Enchantment<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Though both campaigns say they\u2019re only defending themselves to ensure the campaign remains focused on the issues, this is no longer about the issues. It has degraded into the sort of garbage that discourages people from voting. Both campaigns are attacking the other at a furious pace while continually blaming the other campaign for the attacks.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That\u2019s called hypocrisy. Both say the other started the fighting. Either candidate could be the first to put the guns down. Neither is doing it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In the meantime, we have two candidates arguing that they have the wisdom and experience to bring the change this nation needs. Neither is displaying the maturity to convince me.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A version of this article was published today on the Diary of a Mad Voter<\/a> blog published by the Denver Post\u2019s Politics West<\/a> and the independent Web site NewWest.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been disappointed and stunned during the last couple of weeks to see the Democratic Party\u2019s presidential nominating process degrade into a disgraceful display of immaturity. After all, we\u2019re talking about electing a commander-in-chief, not a middle-school student-body president. Cheap shots and negative attacks have come to define the Democratic Party\u2019s nominating process \u2013 a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haussamen-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}