The primary season for the ’08 presidential elections started way earlier this year than I have ever seen it in the 40 years I have been involved in politics. Many of us have already chosen whom we are supporting and are working very hard to get them in a position to get the Democratic Party nomination because we believe he or she is the best person for the job. That is as it should be.
I will add that we need to respect each others opinions and the many candidates in the field. Some of us are political hack or junkies who have been involved in politics for years while others are new and trying to make an intelligent choice of whom they wish to support. Negative blogging, attacking supporters of another candidate, or name calling will not help the Democratic Party nor the person who eventually gets the nomination. It will hurt the Democratic Nominee in many ways.
The person insulted today could have been one of the hardest working volunteers a campaign has ever seen if they had not been treated badly by supporter or volunteer from another camp during the primary season. I will use myself as an example of working for a candidate I did not support during the primary. In ’04, I was a Dean supporter. We all know he did not get the nomination and that Kerry did. I started working for the coordinated campaign office in Travis County as a volunteer in early August of ’04 and wound up working 50 or more hours a week as a volunteer after working my regular job. I was able to get behind the campaign because I was always treated nicely by the Kerry camp even when I was working on getting the nomination for Dean. I am not sure I would have devoted the time if I had seen consistent attacks on Dean or been insulted by people from the Kerry camp.
I guess what I am trying to say is that we need to respect each other, our knowledge, our intelligence, and the candidates because once the nominee is chosen we will all have to work together to get a Democrat elected to the Oval Office. Can we all call a truce and work together to promote our candidates without being negative about others or insulting to the supporters of each candidate? That will make it much easier for the camps to meld and support whoever wins the nomination and get the Republicans out of the White House.
