Neck and Neck: The Neverending Race

And so another Super Tuesday has passed and again another group of political pundits on the radio and TV continue to espouse the importance of states and territories which have rarely ever decided anything in a primary election come to the forefront again. No knock against North Carolina or Indiana but when in recent memory have you ever seen candidates campaigning that hard against one another in states where they'd be lucky to get one candidate to show up? It's a strange case and it's likely to get stranger if both Clinton and Obama continue trading jabs the way they have been for the past weeks.

Many of you probably know that I love movies and "Rocky" is one of the ones that my brother and I grew up watching. I credit that movie with a lot of things, not the least of which was to inspire me to live a more active lifestyle and get in shape. Still, I don't think I'm one of the only ones to take inspiration from the film. I think a lot of people have used the message of the movie to form the basis of their lifestyle. I certainly think that the two frontrunners in the Democratic race have certainly had their fill and are on their way to yet another round. Still, unlike the "Rocky" movies which (for the most part) end after about two hours, we have been reliving this same 'film' by the Democratic candidates for months now. Come November it will have been more than a year that these two have been trading blows in order to become the next candidate.

I think determination is a good thing but in the case of the Democrats I think they are only hurting themselves by prolonging the nomination process. The nation hasn't been this divided over candidates within the same party in a very long time. I sometimes wonder if people realize that they are both in the same party. You wouldn't believe it given the way they take stabs at one another in debates or in commercials but it's true, they are actually in the same party. I guess they just enjoy putting the other down when given the public spotlight. Meanwhile, the frontrunner and candidate for the Republicans, John McCain is sitting with nothing else to do until the campaigns for November start. I find it humorous that he's basically on campaign vacation right now while Obama and Clinton continue to tour the country as if they are already the one and only nominee for their party.

While the competition between the two is very close, I don't know if it's grit, determination or sheer pig-headedness that is keeping one or the other from retiring from the primary race. Sure there's nothing like being the candidate that people want for the president but then again, the split is so close that I think the country's Democrats are going to be ticked off either way. Helping matters along are Repbulicans who are switching parties for the interim in order to vote in the Democratic primaries remaining so that they can select the candidate that they feel would be best suited to lose the main campaign to McCain come November. I don't know what's sillier; the fact that we're in a virtual tie and it's going to come down to Guam to decide or that Republicans are voting Democrats to choose a loser. Whatever it is, until one or the other bows out, people in places that didn't think mattered will be helping truly shape the future of our nation.