The Competition

Two teams, Yellow and Green, are competing for a spot to represent the country on the world stage. Only one member from each each is allowed to go to the Big Game, and thus they need to prove to me why their team is the best. Of course, the first task is for each to decide internally who's the best player to send. So they begin a number of smaller, intra-team contests that pit teammate against teammate. The competition is tough and the weaker team members drop out early. Halfway through these intermediate competitions, the Yellow Team has essentially selected its representative to compete against the other team, while the Green Team is deciding between two of its top members and doesn't look like it will make a decision anytime soon. So while Green may continue its somewhat divisive internal bickering until the decision deadline, Yellow's unofficial representative is already able to begin addressing me with his campaign for why he is the best to go onto the Big Game. I am intrigued; not only does it look like Yellow is more organized, but by the time the selection deadline comes, will the Greens be able to put up an effective argument against what the Yellow candidate has been feeding me for the past few moments in only about half his time? Bad news for the Green Team...

Of course, that metaphor is a simplification of the current primary race, but my thoughts on it more or less still hold. A lot of it is based on the 2-D Media Voter Theory. Whereas McCain can start his general election campaign now and thus move towards the center to appeal to independents, Obama and Hillary may have to stay to the far left until August. By the time one of them will be given the nod, it may be too late: either McCain will have found a larger support base, or moving towards center will be difficult in light of a highly watched primary in which both candidates were noticeably liberal (why not just hand the Republicans a reason to rally behind the term "flip-flop"?)

It will be interesting to see of the DNC puts pressure on Obama and Clinton to hurry it up.