Obama’s campaign took a serious hit after the break of the controversial statements made by his longtime friend and pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Clinton supporters pounced immediately on this embarrassing connection in an attempt to close the gap in the delegate counts.

This is just the latest in a cycle of political attacks between the two contenders for the Democratic nomination for President.

The primary race has in essence been turned into a mudslinging match where the loser will lose the party’s nomination. The winner, however, could also end up the loser, but this time for the presidency itself.

For almost two months, John McCain has been the only major contender for the Republican nomination. This means that he is now the clear candidate for the Republican bid for President.

By deciding on the nominee so early, the GOP has taken a huge step toward unifying the Republican vote. Even though some conservatives have concerns about McCain, they will still support him in the general election against a Democratic opponent.
This, unfortunately, will not be the case if Hillary or Obama do not win the Democratic nomination soon.

The longer the duration of the primary race, the more personal and vicious the attacks will get, thereby dividing the party even deeper than they are already. If the trend of personal attacks continues the way it is or indeed worsens, the supporters of either candidate will not come to the support of the other candidate, should they win. If Hillary Clinton should gain enough delegates to win the nomination, it is most likely that Obama’s supporters will not give their votes to their candidate’s rival. This would also be true should Obama win.

Therefore, the longer Hillary and Obama hold out, the worse their chances for taking the White House will become.

John McCain has a great opportunity set before him right now. While the Democrats are busy throwing insults and accusations around, McCain could capitalize by solidifying the Republican base around the country and even independents or Democrats who have become turned off by the negative tactics of the Obama and Clinton campaigns.
Some political analysts have even questioned whether McCain has done enough to take advantage of this situation.

In the past week, McCain returned from a trip to Iraq and began speaking out against the Democrat position on the war. This is an extremely divisive issue among Americans, which has caused McCain to distract attention away from the feuding Democrats.

He would be better off standing back and watching as Clinton Obama tear each other apart. By shying away from controversial issues, McCain would appear as a more compromising candidate in comparison to the Democrats.

He should be gaining support and funding, not dividing his support on the issue of the war.

To counter McCain’s clear advantage of time as his party’s sole candidate for President, the Democratic candidates must get their act together. They should be reminding the American people why McCain should not be President, not why their current opponent should not be Presidential nominee.

The way the political attacks are going it seems as if the Republicans don’t have to do much to win the election; the Democrats are doing all the work for them.

In a number of debates, both Obama and Clinton have stated that they would rather see their Democratic opponent in the White House than McCain. It’s real a shame that their actions do not reflect those words.