Obama or Clinton, change or experience, rhetoric or retail politics: Despite the seemingly paralyzing choice being presented to Democratic voters in the U.S. presidential primaries, the party is establishing itself as a near-unstoppable force come November,
according to election watchers.
Party supporters are turning out in record numbers across the country, dwarfing the participation of their Republican counterparts and demonstrating that within the Blue states, at least, the desire for change will be hard to beat.
"In Democratic primaries we have 12 new records for turnout in 12 different states," said Curtis Gans, of the Washington-based Committee for the Study of the American Electorate.
"We haven't had anything like this for a very, very long time."
Democrats are being driven to the polls in astounding numbers due to the competitive race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but also out of an overwhelming desire to end the administration of the Republican Party in Washington.
Anti-Bush sentiment is so strong within the country that Democrats are apparently willing to rally behind whoever becomes their nominee for president, indicating that the hostility between candidates' camps will soon be redirected toward the GOP in the general election.
A poll conducted for The Associated Press and CBS found that 70 per cent of Democratic voters said they would support either Mr. Obama or Ms. Clinton as nominee.
Only 28 per cent of Mr. Obama's supporters said they would be dissatisfied with Ms. Clinton as the Democratic nominee, while 31 per cent of her supporters said they would be unhappy with a victory for the Illinois senator.
And this apparent satisfaction with both liberal candidates could spell trouble for the Republicans, who are not expected to rally as uniformly around front-runner John McCain.
"Unless we get to November and are sidelined by blatant racism or people's dislike of Hillary, it's very hard to see how the Republican Party nominee will win," Mr. Gans said.
"My guess is that barring self-created catastrophe, the Democrats are going to win."
They will certainly have a good chance if they maintain their current presence at the polls.
In some areas of the United States, Democratic voters outnumbered Republicans on Super Tuesday for the first time in decades.
The non-partisan group Project Vote said yesterday that attendance records were broken in the five states they had monitored: Arizona, California, Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee.
In those states, Project Vote noted a marked increase in participation among traditionally underrepresented communities, including those younger than 30, blacks and Latinos.
And that sea change has not been ignored by the Democratic nominees.
"There is one thing on this February night that we do not need the final results to know: Our time has come. Our movement is real. And change is coming to America," Mr. Obama said on Tuesday night.
But Alex Keyssar, an expert on elections and voting at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, said it remains to be seen whether the Democrats can maintain this momentum until the fall.
Latino voters propelled to vote in the primaries by the hard-line anti-immigration stands of some Republican candidates may be lulled somewhat by the impending nomination of the more
moderate Mr. McCain, he said.
Likewise, many of Mr. Obama's supporters, especially young voters and blacks who have turned out to vote like never before, could become disillusioned if Ms. Clinton wins.
And while the Democrats are currently motivated to remove President George W. Bush's party from the White House, the GOP base will likely be similarly stirred to action by the prospect of another Clinton administration.
But by far the biggest threat to the Democratic Party's chances in November is an electorate that tires of the long and emotionally taxing political process.
"It's not so evident right now, but there's going to be a severe case of election fatigue," Mr. Keyssar said.
"If you had the Super Bowl every three weeks you wouldn't get 95 million people watching it."
