After poor showings in South Carolina and Florida, John Edwards dropped out of the democratic race. Dodd, Gravel, Richardson, and Biden were never really contenders. And while Kucinich wasn't either, at least he hung in there.

I just filled out my mail-in ballot for the Washington State primary. The Democratic party ignores the results of the primary and assigns 100% of its delegates based on the caucuses. I only filled it out because there were two local ballot measures related to school financing.

I'll get to express my opinion next Saturday, February 9th, when we hold the Washington state Democratic Party caucuses... Four days after Super Tuesday. Basically, the only ones left now are Obama and Clinton, and if one candidate has a huge win on Tuesday, the other could concede the nomination before Saturday.

If that's the case, why bother? It doesn't matter who I wanted to be my party's nominee, because a handful of states already knocked most of the candidates out of the race. Only if it's close enough on Super Tuesday to keep both candidates in the race will I even have a choice on Saturday.

I'd ask my state party to hold its caucus earlier, but we've seen multiple states this year who lost their delegates by moving up their primaries. Basically, the Democrats have told party faithful in many states that if they try to get their vote in when it might actually matter, their vote won't count. But the party is happy to fundraise in those states. Yeah, my money is welcome, but my opinion isn't.

So, it's possible that there might still be two candidates for the Democratic nomination on Saturday. Still not the field I hoped to have to select from, but better than going to the caucus just to rubber stamp the decision made by a handful of states the party respects more than mine.

In 2004, my vote for Kerry was not a vote *for* Kerry, but *against* Bush. In 2000, my vote for Gore was again a vote *against* Bush. And it looks like in 2008, my vote for the Democratic Party's nominee may again be a vote against the Republicans, rather than a vote for a Democratic party candidate I support and actually had a hand in selecting.

I can only wait and see if I'll actually get to have a candidate who excites and inspires me, because there really seems to be no point to my participation in the primary process, other than making donations. Because when it comes time to put my mouth where my money has been, it's usually too late.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Politics & Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.