fatigue may be setting in for some of us, it's worth noting some of the truly unique aspects of the current presidential campaign in the United States. For instance, contrary to what pundits have repeatedly said, the lack of resolution on the Democratic side as opposed to the long-settled Republican nomination of John McCain has hardly guaranteed McCain a cakewalk to Election Day. Barack Obama, despite the negative publicity generated by the flap over the radical comments on race from his church's pastor and his own recent comments on the working man's “bitterness” at being left out of America's prosperity, is running head-to-head with McCain in national polls, and Hillary Clinton is steadily narrowing the gap between herself and McCain. The reasons for the continued strong showing of the Democrats when paired in hypothetical races with the Republican nominee may well have been highlighted in Wednesday night's Democratic debate in Pennsylvania, the state whose primary will determine the continued viability of Clinton's campaign. Both candidates jabbed at their opponent but there were no real roundhouse punches thrown by either side. Clinton had taken to calling Obama an “elitist” in the days leading up to the debate - a charge she did not back away from Wednesday night - and while repeating the contention in the debate, she did it softly and with a smile. Obama, for his part, referred to Clinton's comments in an interview before her husband's election to the presidency 16 years ago when she said that she was not the kind of woman who would “stay at home and bake cookies” for her husband. At the time, the comment was twisted by right-wing commentators into a testament of radical feminism just as, Obama slyly explained, his comments about working class bitterness had been convoluted into a testament of elitism. “She's been through this,” he said. In other words, while the sniping continues, it is, politics or not, being presented as if it were two friends debating the fate of the country. And America is badly in need of that. After seven years of George W. Bush's “my way or the highway,” a real sense that “we are all in this together” is like water to a man lost in the desert. If the next president can transfer that sense to the global stage, we may truly see a “new world order” for the 21st century. __
