MB Civic

By Eugene Robinson | Friday, January 18, 2008 | The Washington Post

“…The really agonizing choices are the ones being made now in both parties.

Is the Republican coalition assembled by Ronald Reagan and reunited by Bush still viable now that so many independents have drifted away? If not, then where lies the party’s true soul? In the hawkishness of McCain, or perhaps Rudy Giuliani? In Romney’s big-business boosterism? In Mike Huckabee’s new admixture of social conservatism and economic populism?

Three primary contests have given three different answers.

The Democratic Party, on the other hand, knows exactly what it stands for. Obama, Clinton and Edwards are hardly fire-breathing radicals. Their positions on domestic issues are all comfortably within the Democratic mainstream. Internationally, all would seek to repair the damage to America’s standing that Bush has done; none is likely to look for wars to start, but none is going to take Dennis Kucinich’s recommendation to renounce war-making for all time.

What Democratic primary voters have to decide, as they cast their ballots, is not just how they view the candidates but how they view the moment.

After suffering through the infuriating Bush years, are Democrats ready to fight, as Edwards believes? Are they nostalgic for the Clinton era, which had its pluses and minuses but at least holds no mystery? Or are they ready to follow Obama on a promising new path, trusting that he knows the way?

Not easy….”…BS

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011702242_pf.html