Anxiety will be many Europeans' first reaction to the angry exchanges between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in South Carolina.
From a transatlantic perspective, only one thing really matters about the 2008 presidential election: that Americans elect a president who will rebuild US relations with the world after the disastrous George Bush years. Whether that president is Mrs Clinton or Mr Obama is an important question - but one that pales into insignificance beside the overriding concern that Mr Bush should not be succeeded by someone from his own party. When the two leading Democrats attack one another as fiercely as they did on Monday, the reflexive fear is that only the Republicans will gain from it.
In truth, it is no surprise that the contest between the two senators is turning nastier at this point. One of these two trailblazing candidates is only a few steps away from getting a firm grip on the nomination in an election that is the Democrats' to lose. The prize is huge and the primary in South Carolina this weekend will do much to shape it. If Mrs Clinton wins she will have a hat-trick of primary victories from which Mr Obama will find it hard to recover. If Mr Obama wins he will be firmly back in the race and will fancy his chances of capturing some big prizes when 22 states vote on Super Tuesday two weeks hence. If the race is turning nasty it is because the stakes are very high.
But it is also because there are some genuine issues at stake - about the candidates' mettle as well as their policies. It is sometimes tempting to see the differences between Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama as so marginal that - particularly from a distance - it hardly matters which of them wins. That is a view many Democrats share; they would be happy with either of them. But the point of the primary process is to put the prospective nominee to the test - and that is what we are witnessing. Is Mrs Clinton able to reach out beyond her core support? What does Mr Obama really believe in? Which of them will deliver best for Americans on the big issues? The questions matter. So the voters need to see how the candidates take the heat - because the Republicans will not hesitate to apply it mercilessly. And let us not exaggerate: Monday's clashes were sharp, but they were not brutal.
Mrs Clinton may seem to have more to lose in these confrontations. As a woman, she is unfairly fated to be held to a different standard when the claws come out. But Mr Obama also runs a risk by turning on Bill Clinton for his campaign role. There is certainly a case against the former president. Yet it smacks of hubris to attack the most popular Democrat in the country at such a time. Mr Obama may find he has committed the more expensive error.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2245155,00.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
