Posted January 30th, 2008 at 1:37PMCame online to make this post, noticed that Edwards finally dropped out. Along with Kucinich about a week ago, the field is only getting narrower. New York has closed primaries, and since I’m registered Green, I can’t vote this primary season. But I feel like it’s important to take a stake in the campaign, and at this point I’d much rather see Obama win the nomination than Clinton.
I’ve come to this conclusion after contrasting both his words and actions to Hillary’s. Although I’ve complained before about both of them lacking authenticity, I think Obama’s facade is more a result of running for president than an artificial, lifelong political persona. Hillary Clinton has always come across as triangulating and self-serving, from her run for the Senate in NY and every move since.
Authenticity or charisma aside, Clinton is also just as hawkish as many of the neo-cons currently in the White House. Her cheerleading for the invasion of Iraq cannot be understated, especially in the face of Obama’s early opposition. Despite political snipes charging otherwise, Obama did indeed oppose the Iraq War early on and for all the right reasons. Being anti-war has never been politically expedient for a politician here. Many have ridden the tired “this war was done wrong,” but few say that it was wrong, and fewer still correctly explain why it was wrong. We invaded and subsequently occupied a nation, killing hundreds of thousands. Clinton only beats around the bush about misinformation, refusing to acknowledge this mistake. And lest we forget, it was during her husband’s tenure that more than one million Iraqis died as a direct result of the sanctions against that country.
Obama has since said dumb things about Iraq, Iran, and various other topics. He’s said what has been politically expedient, and he’s a frontrunner in the 2008 presidential race for it. Pandering to voters is hardly a huge crime, especially when differences actually do exist between the panderers. This is the lesson of 2000, where we had Gore and Bush who, on the face of it, looked to be two sides of the same coin. We now know otherwise.
It’s not all about foreign policy. Obama’s healthcare plan is probably as close as we will get to nationalized healthcare. In the press releases, it even sounds good. Time will tell whether or not he’s able to push it through, and whether or not such a half-hearted attempt at insuring everyone succeeds.
His economic policy is the traditional “closing loopholes” and “repealing tax breaks for the richest.” He says nothing revolutionary here, it’s the same conservatism we’ve seen from Democrats for decades. But in the face of schemes like Huckabee’s Fair Tax, it’s a welcomed relief. Obama’s conservation policies echo many others: reducing foreign oil consumption, investments in renewable energy, and a cap and trade system for dealing with carbon emissions. All sound plans, if any can be accomplished.
At the end of the day, Hillary Clinton might sound similar on any number of issues. But Clinton comes across as more of a faceless, political automaton than Obama. She’s polarizing and just as triangulating as Bill. Looking at prospective cabinet appointments, Obama’s team makes a better case for a progressive, brighter future in America.
We already had a Clinton in the White House. It was OK. I’m hoping for better this time around. A few shed tears can’t save her now.
Barack Obama for President, ’08.
As a sign of the times, Wikipedia becomes the best place to learn about candidates.
Political positions of Barack Obama entry
Barack Obama entry
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hey hunney, yer blog doesn’t work in ie6 in 1680×1050
In order to keep everyone updated on Zeke, Zeke announces support for Obama.
lol. what happened to all the whitemalecandidates?
righty, i’ll pick the *ahem* ..”underdog”.. Hillary to win then.
Why? Simply because as the canidates on both sides diminish, and numerous swinging democrats look across at John “Die Hard” McCain in the other corner, they’re finally going to get some real focus on the actual goal.. a Democrat in the White House. Hillary has a better chance against McCain (with all the aging white voters, more than half of which are female i might add), so as you said it, all the pandering from the pulpit on broad 1-party policy won’t rate as much as your own team winning, especially when the alterny would mean another Neo-Con War-President for possibly the next 4 to 8 years..
(hehe.. “beat about the bush” ..what a multi-pun! ;O)
LOL
Dredd, careful, people die in blog wars, speaking of which, why is kustomzone.com down?
LOL, Zeke’s blog is getting raped by spam while mine is holding the fort.
Lawlerspam
I guess I was undecided before, but I’ve really started to embrace the idea of having Obama as President. Maybe it’s the heavy spin of him being the spirit of Robert and John F. Kennedy, but clearly he speaks to the younger generation of voters so much more than the Clinton’s have.
I am all for a fresh start (as I am tired of the Bush-Clinton dynasties) but it is sadly too premature for jumping on any bandwagon. My problems with supporting Obama is that his race is an issue to so many people. Comparing a White Woman to a Black Man, I don’t know how people will react; for some reason, there are parts of the country that live in this alternate reality where both aren’t acceptable.
Regardless, Obama seems like the stronger person for both America and the International community. It would defiantly be a lot more progressive to elect either of them, especially considering the conservative choices we have.
I don’t know if the words progressive and Clinton have any place being in the same sentence together. And I don’t think endorsing a candidate during the primaries is too early or involving any bandwagons. The primaries are expressly for endorsing candidates.
And it takes me less time to delete a few spam comments than to update my Akismet plug-in, so *shrug*
Zeke’s premature Obama post has spurred a new Photoshop contest in which you need to make lizard lady look more like a lizard!
http://bakshi.us/2008/02/03/photoshop-this-obama-volunteer/
Thank you Zeke for giving me inspiration material on my blog!
Clinton wants to use the flesh of jews as a new source of oil. I’m pretty sure that is progressive.
If it takes less time to delete your spam than it takes to update your Akismet plugin, why don’t you just use the OneClick install plugin which can install a remote .zip file.
You don’t have to rebel against the owners of WordPress, and you do need to make your blog family friendly to get general viewership.
Bakshi doesn’t really understand the slacker mindset.