Liberty and Justice for All!

During the MSNBC coverage of Super Tuesday last night, they discussed the idea that John McCain was winning in states that Republicans don’t tend to win in the General Election. For example, McCain won New York and California but Huckabee won many southern states. This is a very interesting point to make. How well is the Republican Party served if the candidate the person they elect doesn’t win the key southern states? If he cannot rile up the Republican base in strong Republican states, will he really do well in the swing states where they need the Republican base to come out and win?

What surprised me was that they did not discuss the same issue on the Democratic ticket. Obama was unable to win New York, Massachusetts or California. Hillary also won Florida (even though they currently don’t count). However, he did win Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, Utah, South Carolina, Colorodo, Idaho, Alaska, Kansas, North Dakota, etc. I have a feeling that he will win Louisiana as well. These are all states that went for Bush in 2004.

Now, I am not suggesting that Obama would lose California or New York if he was the nominee. However, I do worry about his ability to draw enough Democrats out in swing states (especially those like Ohio, Florida, and Pensylvania) to make the difference in the general election.

We cannot rely on the hatred of Bush to win. We hated Bush in 2004 as well, and that didn’t help us win when he was actually the candidate. Obama’s ability to bring out new voters is impressive and perhaps that would help him overcome his inability to win the Democratic stronghold states in the primary. I just worry about the possibility that a Democrat gets the nomination by winning many states in the primary that wont be won by a Democrat in the general election.

I guess this is one of the reasons why I am reluctant to come out and just choose a candidate to support this saturday (other than myself). I am more concerned with supporting the Democrat who wins and working to change the Democratic Party in Louisiana and start helping the progressives to make actual progress.