Should he stay or should he go?

Much of the country is twittering about President Obama's decision not to attend Supreme Court Justice Scalia's funeral and like most other things, it's divided primarily among party lines. Republicans say it's an outrage, Democrats say it's a decision that's been made before. In fact, only three of the past seven Justice funerals were attended by the sitting President. On the other hand, this is the first time in the last 65 years that a current President didn't attend the funeral of a sitting Justice. So there's ammunition here for both sides.

President Obama is a Democrat and Justice Scalia was the most conservative Republican justice on the court. So if politics was a factor, it would be easy enough to see why Obama said no but it wouldn't be so easy to explain to others or ourselves. My mother always taught me to embrace my enemies rather than ignoring them and although sometimes that's a hard thing to do, that piece of advice proved to be right far more often than wrong. It could almost be considered petty on Obama's part not to go, regardless of his feelings about Republicans in general or Scalia in particular. He should man up and attend the funeral as a representative of the people of the United States rather than staying away because of partisan politics.

I haven't heard a specific explanation of why he isn't attending so there obviously isn't anything going on that's significant enough to keep him away. So why not go and avoid a conflict? Most Democrats wouldn't be offended if he went and it would take away a Republican talking point they are most likely to exploit loudly and often.

Maybe the President is feeling conflicted due to the current nature of the nominating process to select the next President. Who would have predicted a year ago that with a week left til March, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump would be leading in the polls? Sanders has only passed three bills during his long tenure in the Senate and two of those were renaming post offices in his home state. He is an unapologetic Democratic Socialist who wants the people to have free health care and free college educations. Donald Trump on the other hand is sexist, racist, and speaks in platitudes rather than specifics. He has never held an elective office and has had ups and downs in his businesses. But he is full of bluster and that is obviously more attractive to people today than remedies for what ails us.

All the experts continue to say what they've been saying for months; that this trend won't last. They believe the Republican establishment will coalesce around a candidate not named Trump and the Democrats, after enjoying a brief fling with Bernie, will regain their heads in time to nominate the only Democrat in the field who could defeat the Republican nominee. Outside of her experience, there's really not much to like about Hillary. She doesn't come across as warm or personal. She seems elitist in her own way. She has a laugh that's more like a cackle and it makes the few hairs I have left on my head stand up when I hear it. She has received large sums of money from Wall Street banks in return for speaking to them about topics she won't discuss publicly. On the other hand, I don't have to like someone to know that their decades of experience in government qualifies them to solve many of the problems that a non-politician wouldn't have a clue about.

Regardless of who the two candidates turn out to be, I feel safe in predicting that on election day, we're all going to have to hold our noses and vote for somebody, even though we know we're not exactly choosing the pick of the litter. If the Democrats can't get excited about the election, they'll stay home in large numbers like they did in the last off-year election and hand the Presidency to the Republicans. On the other hand, if they vote in large numbers, the Republicans have little chance regardless of who their nominee is.

Getting the vote out is the key to winning and naming a new Supreme Court Justice when the current balance on the court is four liberals and four conservatives will be the most significant thing the new President does during his or her tenure.