The Great American Picnic

The most recent debacle on the campaign concerning Barack Obama and Reverend Wright has me raising many questions about American Politics. Four years ago when I was a senior in High School I had a Political Science teacher who had many interesting theories about American Politics. One of my favorite was his analogy of the Great American Picnic. His theory was that we in America are having one giant picnic.
When America was first founded our picnic was small and we only invited White Property Owners to come to the picnic but as the country changed we started inviting more and more people to the party. Interestingly, during this race, two groups who were previously not invited to the picnic are now trying to chair the picnic committee! One way that I look at this is as though the United States electoral system is a picnic, and each state is a table at the picnic. Well what inevitably happens when you get the community together for a celebration?? Gossip..Perhaps, this is why we seem to have become so infatuated with the Reverend Wright story and Senator Clinton's Bosnia comments.
Now that we're done with the small talk (policy) we have to start the gossip. The media, or the picnic planners, are hard at work trying to find anything to talk about that doesn't have to do with GDP growth or boring financial numbers; after all, what fun is a picnic if the picnic theme is "Economic Growth."
Now, I may have some of you really wondering what in God's name I am talking about. Essentially, when I first started hearing the Reverend Wright Story and all the political chaos that has resulted from it I was simply asking myself why. Why is this on my television and in my newspaper?
The answer is actually quite simple, and for those of us who believe that we can come together as a nation and have a political campaign free of negativity; here comes the reality check.
The purpose of a political campaign is obviously to win. When you are losing it becomes advantageous to "go negative." If we assume that all candidates are losing at some point then naturally there will always continue to be negative politics because at some point it will always be advantageous to go negative..... So, whether it is Hillary Clinton, or Barack Obama who has to face John McCain one thing is for sure, it will be negative and it will be divisive. Some call it Cynicism, some call it realism. You decide.