In a season when athletes are taking centre stage, I cannot help but think about the five and ten thousand meter races. These metes often have to be governed by pacesetters. These are usually experienced but retired runners who are paid to make sure that the participants stay within a time frame. These times are flashed across the screen and at specific points in the race to make sure that the runners can achieve goals and if need be break records.
I think this is a fitting description for the race to the white house as it stands. There have been few front runners who have sailed right through the initial party nominations all the way to the 'finals' in most cases, were shielded by the rest (like migratory birds in flying in formation) only to emerge towards the end to achieve the victory.
So while encouraged by the appearances and attention drawn by Hillary Clinton on the democratic side and Donald Trump on the republican side, there is a possibility that all they are doing is setting the pace for the rest of the runners.
It is also interesting to note that a ten year anniversary of the Katrina
disaster (a hurricane that ripped through the State State of Louisiana and possibly turned the tide of the U.S public opinion) has brought about the appearance of the former presidents club of Bill Clinton (D) and George Walker Bush (R). Strategic because both pulled off a controversial eight year terms and both are bound to support the bids by close family members Jeb Bush (R) and Hillary Clinton (D).
The pacesetters have therefore helped bring certain issues to the fore.
While the end of the first of two presidential terms is often useful in creating some breathing room, it also presents a shift of thinking focusing on legacy. The battles to cripple the presidency (using shut downs and jerry-mandering) were a mark of these eight years and have been further amplified by determinations by the bulk of the republican candidates (aspirants) to reverse by decree many of this current presidents rulings.
So the return to Louisiana is significant because it involves the passage back in time where the Republicans can attempt to reclaim their southern territory (bible belt) while the democrats prove their worth and demonstrate to the people in the south that the choice of change was the right decision. In my view, both parties being political animals have to defend their claims using some of the most valuable pieces in their arsenal.
But while this is significant, these are not the issues at the centre of race as it stands and as presented by the media.
But this weeks appearances of the 'former presidents club' have placed these two presidents into part of the pacesetter groups if only vicariously.
We have not engaged directly with Hillary Clinton but she seems to have benefitted from the media attention...or at least she should try to. Maybe a key to this race for her campaign will be in returning to the battle between herself and Barack Hussein Obama and sifting through the noise to see why his version of change was more preferable to her version of the same. Him being an African American and her being a woman (both beneficiaries of constitutional amendments for civil rights and suffrage).
My guess is that his subscription to the change message worked both against the republicans (and his views regarding their failures) as well as against his democratic foe (who by being in the white house for eight years-albeit as wife, was also viewed as being part of the establishment).
The battle for the nomination is complex enough for party members and at some point the needs of the whole must be sacrificed for the one. Which is why the entrance of 16 participants in the republican race is such a challenge to call.
Part of the battle could end up being for the house and for the senate especially if the white house is offered on the altar of sacrifice. But the brutality of coalitions is something few of us want to see.
Immigration, Race relations in general, The economy, U.S foreign policy, Gun control.
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