Democratic Primaries Come To End (Thank The Lord!)

  Today marks the end of the Democratic primaries, and the overwhelming questions are "Will she or won't she?"  Will Clinton concede defeat, or will she carry this thing through the convention?  Will Clinton swallow her pride and accept a VP slot on Obama's ticket?  And, will Obama swallow his pride and offer such a slot to Clinton?  An Obama-Clinton ticket has been seen as a "dream ticket" by many Democrats and would be a formidable opponent for GOP candidate John McCain.

Here's what I would like to see happen.  Let's have an Obama-Clinton Democratic ticket.  Then let's have a McCain-Condoleeza Rice Republican ticket.  Then all of our gender and race issues are in some form of equilibrium (not to mention that Ms. Rice is extraordinarily talented, far beyond what she has been allowed to demonstrate under the Bush administration, and we should not let her get away just yet), and maybe, just maybe, we could have a presidential election where some real issues are discussed.   In reality, all equilibrium jokes aside, these two tickets might just be the best foot each party could put forward at this point in time.  The substance of the respective women on these prospective tickets would immeasurably enhance the choice of the two men at the top.

Surely, the Iraq war will be one of the big issues, but recent reports seem to indicate a trend that would allow the next president to look very good simply by surfing the wave of improved conditions over there.  Fuel prices are probably the issue which is most paining Americans today, and the candidates have to-date shown precious little interest in offering substantive proposals that would make a change in that issue.  I would hope they will not be allowed to skate on fuel issues in the fall campaign.  Health care, education, etc., etc., are all issues that will require something well-thought and creative to convince many voters in the general election.  Race is an issue that needs to be taken head-on, especially given the racist invective of religious figures such as Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright.  It seems that the racial issues in this country have almost turned around, with African-American pastors continuing to fuel a fire for reasons that are just not entirely clear.

Regardless, this summer's conventions and the run-up to them promises to be interesting.  Stay tuned.