It’s a little too soon to say “And now there are three”… but according to this article from Spain’s ABC Journal, the only three candidates worth talking about are Clinton, Obama and McCain.
The whole world has a horse in this race and so reacts when one of the participants falls at a hurdle.
Of the Republican Race,
During the primaries, we can clearly see that voters have preferred a moderate, well centered message to the more radical and extremist theses of McCain’s competitors, such as Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, whom voters have started abandoning
The article notes some electoral realpolitik:
McCain is the only republican who has any possibility of defeating any of the Democratic candidates, which means he is the one who can best aggregate the votes from the various groups around the electoral space and who can add emblematic groups such as retired seniors, Hispanics or war veterans, so that as his ninety-something mother says, the more radical republicans will have to vote for him even if they have to pinch their nose
As for the choice on the Democratic side,
No woman and no colored man has ever beaten out the competition to become the Democratic candidate with a real possibility of winning. Now we know that one of them will do, in what will represent an unprecedented proposition to the members of the Democratic Party. It all boils down to a duel between Obama as the symbol of an almost loud change, including breaking with American political traditions, and Hilary Clinton, who represents the traditional environment, but wrapping her offer with the novelty that she is a woman.
Read the whole thing here on Watching America.com
Robin Koerner is a British-born citizen of the USA, who currently serves as Academic Dean of the John Locke Institute. He holds graduate degrees in both Physics and the Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge (U.K.). He is also the founder of WatchingAmerica.com, an organization of over 100 volunteers that translates and posts in English views about the USA from all over the world.
Robin may be best known for having coined the term “Blue Republican” to refer to liberals and independents who joined the GOP to support Ron Paul’s bid for the presidency in 2012 (and, in so doing, launching the largest coalition that existed for that candidate).
Robin’s current work as a trainer and a consultant, and his book If You Can Keep It , focus on overcoming distrust and bridging ideological division to improve politics and lives. His current project, Humilitarian, promotes humility and civility as a basis for improved political discourse and outcomes.