A Clinton vs McCain presidential campaign would have ensured that yet another election would be focused on the generational battles of the Boomer wars. Once again we would have been forced to re-fight Vietnam and the drug culture of Woodstock and many of the debates of the 60's and 70's that have continued to mar our elections. Sadly, many in the Boomer generation are comfortable in fighting and re-fighting those battles, including many in the media. And those battles have all too often become the bread and butter of some politicians to rev-up their base. One can be certain that republicans were more than willing to avoid the present issues and engage Hillary Clinton on the battlegrounds of the cultural wars, particularly with their Vietnam war candidate of John McCain. And to be sure, some Boomers in the Clinton camp such as Gloria Steinem and Erica Jong and others were already gearing up to make this election about the 60's Women's Liberation Movement and Girl Power.
Re-fighting those tired Boomer battles would surely have been a media event, with all too predictable media narratives. Just as predictable, a five month rehashing of the Boomer battles would have turned off yet another generation of young people. In a time when young people have been actively engaged in our political system like never before, it would have been criminal to drag another generation into those old battles. In large measure, it is the younger generation that have energized this election. The younger generation has little interest in fighting another generation's battles. They are interested in the relevance of now as well as bringing about real change to build a better future. Surely the re-fighting of the Boomer battles would have resulted in pushing the challenges we face further on the back burner, almost guaranteeing that nothing substantial would be accomplished by the next administration. It would have mattered little which side won, the status quo would have prevailed.
With Barack Obama's nomination, we are ensured that the debates of the 2008 presidential election will not be about the tired old battles of the 60's and 70's. Like the many young people who support him, Obama is of another generation, not a participant of the Boomer wars. Obama's candidacy will allow the country to focus on present issues rather than re-fighting the battles of the past. If McCain and the GOP attempt to drag out the tired rhetoric of the culture wars and Boomer battles against Obama, it will provide further proof of just how out of touch they really are with the issues of the day and with the concerns of the majority of Americans.
