Information About the Election Results

The press seems to be playing the results of Tuesday's primaries as a big win for Hillary Clinton. What really happened. According to the New York Times, she picked up nine delegates in Ohio, five in Rhode island, and four in Texas, but lost three in Vermont, for a total gain of 15 delegates out of 311 at stake in the four states. Both the Obama and Clinton campaigns have Obama about 150 delegates ahead at this point. It seems very unlikely that either candidate will get enough delegates in the remaining 12 primaries to win the nomination with pledged delegates on the first ballot, so that the superdelegates will probably decide the nomination.

While I am at it, Bill Clinton, born on August 19, 1946, was the third youngest man to become president after Teddy Roosevelt and John Kennedy. When he assumed office in January 1993 he was 46 years old, former governor of Arkansas -- one of the smaller and more backward states. Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961. If elected he will be 47 years old when he assumes office in 2009. He is a senator from a large and influential state who has been a major figure in the Democratic party since he made the keynote address in the 2004 national convention. (Read Paul Jenkins in The Huffington Post on the comparison of Bill Clinton's qualifications in 1992 and Barack Obama's in 2008, and the oddity of Hillary Clinton's sudden enthusiasm for age and experience.) It might be that a man who has the talent and charisma to rise to the presidency in his mid 40's is likely to be a better than average president. And indeed, were Hillary Clinton to wait her turn, in eight years she would be three years younger than John McCain is now; not only do women live longer on average than do men, but McCain bears the physical disabilities inflicted by his war wounds and torture.

It seems to me that the presidency of the United States is too important an office to decide on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, or arguments of whose turn is next. Especially at this time -- with two ongoing occupations against insurgencies, terrorists in the wings, a failing economy, a weakened military, and a discredited cadre of national politicians added to our preexisting problems of education and health care services -- let us elect the person we think can do the best job leading the nation!