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By now you’ve already heard of Hillary Clinton’s big victory on Tuesday with Primary wins in Ohio and Texas. Both of these states were essential for her to remain relevant as a candidate and she was unsurprisingly extatic about her wins. I for one was not very happy about her victory and I wasn’t alone. Hillary Clinton is, in my opinion, not the best candidate for the Democratic party.

Before I get into my reasons for believing Barack Obama is a better Democratic candidate, I just want to go over a few facts. Even after Tuesday Obama still leads Clinton in the delegate count 1,520 to 1,424. A Democratic candidate needs 2,025 delegates to win the nomination and Obama is still in the lead there. Hillary did win the Texas primary, but it’s the Texas caucus that doles out the delegates each candidate will recieve. There are 67 delegates up for grabs and Obama leads that race 55% to 44% with 38 percent of the state reporting so far. You can listen to an explanation for this somewhat confusing process here courtesy of NPR.

This past Tuesday’s victories for Hillary were very detrimental to the Democratic party in my eyes. I will not argue that she isn’t a strong candidate. I believe that both her and Obama have very strong backgrounds and both have their weaknesses. For me this boils down to one thing, the Democrats come off as looking fractured and their inability to select one candidate to run in the general election could hurt them in November. Much of the country already sees Democrats as weak and unable to make a strong decision. The country sees them as a party of whiners who would rather have a meeting than take action. This primary is not helping the Democrats change the way they are viewed.

But how would one candidate be better at this point in time? Isn’t choice what Democracy is all about?

Democracy is about the people’s ability to choose from a number of candidates the one they feel will be the best at running the country. But like it or not we have a two party system in the United States currently and so every election eventually boils down to two choices. The earlier each party picks their candidate, the more time that candidate has to trump his cause. As John McCain goes around the country acquiring funds and gaining support, Hillary and Obama continue to fight for at least another month. (The Pennsylvania primary is April 22.) As they attack each other in the primaries they hurt their own ability to run against McCain because voters have already heard most of the weaknesses of each candidate. McCain is able to build his campaign while Obama and Clinton further present to voters why the other would make a bad president.

The Democrats need to build a unified front, much like the Republicans have done in the last decade. They need to take the anger that America feels towards Iraq and they need to build a single message and present one candidate that will represent that message for them. I think it’s time for someone to drop from the race and in my opinion that person should be Hillary Clinton. Her election has faltered recently and even with her Texas/Ohio victory she is still behind Barack in the delegate count.

Why is Barack Obama the best symbol for the Democratic party?

He already presents a unifying message of change and hope. Hillary’s campaign constantly attacks that message as a lot of sunshine and no substance, but it’s the type of message that America needs right now. Old party politics have gotten us 20 year of either a Bush or a Clinton in office and what do we have to show for it? The largest deficit in history, a war that is costing us Trillions of dollars and a country that is divided across religious and political lines. It’s time for someone that represents a new way of thinking to have their chance to clean things up. If you look at Obama’s record in the Illinois Senate and the U.S. Senate, you’ll find that he has been able to work with people in both parties to get things done. (Here’s some for analysis of Obama’s U.S. Senate voting.) I also believe Obama isn’t as polarizing as Clinton and in a general election against a fairly strong Republican candidate, Clinton’s past could hurt Democrats.

I just want to add here that a lot of people are in favor of Hillary because if she’s in office her husband would be there to hand out advice should she need it. This is a good idea in theory and I was always a Bill Clinton fan myself. But if you look back on his 8 years in office you’ll notice that most, if not all, of his enacted policies were dismantled by the Bush administration. One of his biggest policies, NAFTA, has come under a lot of fire in recent years. It’s not just enough to do things while your in office, but you have to make sure that you can make a lasting impression.

Politics will always be a divisive issue and this year’s Democratic primary is a great example. In Texas and Ohio Hillary won with old people, hispanics and women and Obama got votes from the college educated, students and blacks.

Just to leave you with this. Personally I do favor Obama over Clinton but no matter who you like better you have to agree that the Democrats need to become unified behind ONE person. We’ll have to wait until November to see whether this primary will hurt the Democratic candidate.

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