Up until this point, I've not been terribly committed to choosing either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Though I was no fan of Hillary, Barack was an unknown, and charisma and pretty speeches didnt seem enough to base a decision on. However, either one of them seemed OK, and either one of them would have been better than any of the possible Republican choices and their "mistakes?-what-mistakes" continuation of the status quo.
Well, now I'm ready to declare myself.
Daveawayfromhome for Barack Obama.
Dont get me wrong. Obama still doesnt carry much in the way of concrete indications that he'll be any good at the job. But then, who does? It's all about hope (hopefully, the Obama strategists didnt base the campaign on that). You hope that your choice does well. You hope that their choice doesnt destroy the nation.
But as I've watched this seemingly endless campaign go on, one thing that I've noticed is that Obama seems to take the High Road. Consistantly. This is the kind of positioning, regardless of party, that one sees little of in Washington anymore, and as the Clinton campaign gets nastier and the Obama campaign maintains its gentlemanlyness, it becomes more and more refreshing (though some say that this staying above the fray is a bad thing).
Before, I was willing to watch the campaign with the idea that whoever won, that would be okay either way. One would have captured the top spot, and the other would have gone on to be VP. Simple, easy, and even the loser had a chance to win in 8 years. I could not imagine the Republicans beating a Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton ticket, the two of them would have resulted in a landslide victory that would have brought dozens of other Democratic victories along with it as folks came to vote for president, but stayed to vote for legislators, councilmen, judges, board members, and all sorts of other positions. Everytime I hear poll numbers given in the primaries, the Democrats seem to be drawing about twice the number of Republicans, and almost all of those would have shown up for the election where both Clinton and Obama were on the ticket, regardless of who was on top.
But this scenario only works following a clean campaign. With her negative campaign strategy, Clinton has taken that possibility and is stomping all over it. I'm pretty sure that we're at the point now where neither of them will be able to run alongside the other without raising the disgust of the public with politics-as-usual, so that now, depending on which candidate wins, some Clinton voters will turn away because they believed Hillary's line about his lack of qualifications, or some Obama voters will turn away because they'll know that the fix is in. The Democrats had a great opportunity to sweep the Republican machine from any kind of real power, and Hillary Clinton has pissed it away in her bid for personal glory.
Well, now I'm ready to declare myself.
Daveawayfromhome for Barack Obama.
Dont get me wrong. Obama still doesnt carry much in the way of concrete indications that he'll be any good at the job. But then, who does? It's all about hope (hopefully, the Obama strategists didnt base the campaign on that). You hope that your choice does well. You hope that their choice doesnt destroy the nation.
But as I've watched this seemingly endless campaign go on, one thing that I've noticed is that Obama seems to take the High Road. Consistantly. This is the kind of positioning, regardless of party, that one sees little of in Washington anymore, and as the Clinton campaign gets nastier and the Obama campaign maintains its gentlemanlyness, it becomes more and more refreshing (though some say that this staying above the fray is a bad thing).
Before, I was willing to watch the campaign with the idea that whoever won, that would be okay either way. One would have captured the top spot, and the other would have gone on to be VP. Simple, easy, and even the loser had a chance to win in 8 years. I could not imagine the Republicans beating a Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton ticket, the two of them would have resulted in a landslide victory that would have brought dozens of other Democratic victories along with it as folks came to vote for president, but stayed to vote for legislators, councilmen, judges, board members, and all sorts of other positions. Everytime I hear poll numbers given in the primaries, the Democrats seem to be drawing about twice the number of Republicans, and almost all of those would have shown up for the election where both Clinton and Obama were on the ticket, regardless of who was on top.
But this scenario only works following a clean campaign. With her negative campaign strategy, Clinton has taken that possibility and is stomping all over it. I'm pretty sure that we're at the point now where neither of them will be able to run alongside the other without raising the disgust of the public with politics-as-usual, so that now, depending on which candidate wins, some Clinton voters will turn away because they believed Hillary's line about his lack of qualifications, or some Obama voters will turn away because they'll know that the fix is in. The Democrats had a great opportunity to sweep the Republican machine from any kind of real power, and Hillary Clinton has pissed it away in her bid for personal glory.
So screw her.
Personally, I think Olbermann is being overgenerous in crediting Clinton's advisors for these behaviors. And, one must ask, if you cannot control your people in a campaign (and lots of things in the Clinton campaign seem to have been the work of rogue elements), how can you expect to control the country?
* * *
One other thing: why has no one pointed out that her own husband came to power with no more of "the Commander in Chief threshold" experience than Obama has? Governor of Arkansas? Oh yeah, lots of foriegn policy decisions there.
2 comments:
You're right, as always. I was for Obama from the star because I'm not a fan of HC's voting record, but the nature of the race has made it clear that she's not the kind of president I want.
My students - who I don't ask but tell me anyway - are leanign toward Obama. My smart kids especially. I tend to agree with them. They're most concerned about the war - or the government's ability to go to war without the consent of the people and in doing so, leave themselves open to other wars, which may lead to a draft. They also don't really like being poor and undereducated anymore. Plus, they'd enjoy some health care. Pretty much in that order. They're young, and don't quite understand the importance of health care.
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