Uncommon Sense

I have a major trust issue with Obama. I know this may be an emotional reaction but I don’t think that I would feel safe with him as my commander and chief. His comments on Pakistan, when he discussed the importance of securing the nuclear weapons depots as our first priority suggested a profound lack of understanding on that issue (which I have been following for months now). I love his books and I love his speeches but I just don’t think that he understands the complexity and the reality of the world in which we live.

I can also totally understand your desire for change. Trust me, after this disaster of an administration I’m ready for a progressive too. I just don’t think however, that it is possible for one man to change the entire attitude of our national discourse. I fear that if he is nominated he will be crushed by the McCain and the Republicans as an inexperienced candidate who appears weak on national security issues. I know that Hillary can survive any sort of these attacks and that she can stand toe-to-toe against McCain on national security.

He is inspirational for having such lofty goals (changing the way work is done in Washington) but, to be quite frank, he doesn’t have any concrete plans which differ from Clinton to achieve this end. I need someone who is results oriented, experienced, and knowledgeable. Clinton, in my judgment, beats Obama in all three.

- Clinton Supporter

A lot of people do have major trust issues with Obama- mostly based on his so-called lack of experience. I would love to figure out some sort of great way to refute your Pakistan thing, but as I am more interested in domestic policy and don’t exactly have a ton of time on my hands right now, I sadly cannot (at this moment).

But I do have to say that I disagree with your point that Barack doesn’t understand the complex world that we live in. No doubt he is 20 years younger than Hillary, he has had more foreign experience than her. He lived in Indonesia as a child, his father is Kenyan, he has visited Kenya on many occasions, and he is currently working with Kenya at resolving the ethnic conflict that has emerged in that region as a result of their December elections. Furthermore, it was Barack Obama, not Hillary Clinton, who first stood up against the Iraq war- in 2002 when everyone in the U.S. Senate was voting for it. Personally, many of his advisers thought that this was a bad idea, as he was considering a run for Senate in the 2004 election, but he did it anyway and publically gave a speech condemning the war.

Of course it is impossible for one man (or woman for that matter) to change the politics of our nation. However, Barack Obama has shown through his work on ethics reform in the Illinois Senate and in the U.S. Senate, along with this work on taping police interrogations in the Illinois Senate, that he has the ability to work against a system that says that a Freshman Senator cannot pass substantive ethics reform in the most corrupt state legislature in the United States, one dominated by a Republican majority no less. Yet he did do it. He didn’t do it by himself, he got Democrats and Republicans to work together on this issue. To me, this is what our country needs now. Pundits and the average American have faulted the newly elected Democratic majority for not accomplishing their Iraq and healthcare goals that they ran on during the 2006 election. The reason they can’t accomplish this is because Republicans and Democrats are unwilling to work together to come up with substantive compromises on these issues- mostly based on positions held by the Bush Administration. 

Hillary Clinton would make a great President. However I worry about her ability to bring Republicans and Democrats together to work on meaningful solutions to the important issues that our country is faced with now. Polls and Hillary herself has shown that she is a divisive figure- you either love her or you hate her (or you’re a crazy Democrat and will vote for her just because she is a fellow Dem). Hillary works within the system, continuing the divisive politics that our country has been plagued with since the Reagan era. Obama has shown that he will bring new people into the process, not only by increasing the amount of the electorate that votes, but by working with Democrats and Republicans on issues open before the American public. This is what is needed for America. Americans need a president that they can trust to work in their best interests and make compromises that are important to actually getting things done in federal government. Barack Obama can and has done this. One of my worries with Hillary Clinton is that she will not be able to do this, as shown in the past with her work in healthcare.

I am scared about a Hillary vs. McCain match up. The thought has crossed my mind many times during this nomination season that the accusations and lies told by the Clinton campaign, that maybe I would vote for McCain if there was a Clinton / McCain match up in November. I don’t doubt that many of my fellow Democrats feel this way, as do the Independents and Republicans that voted for Obama in the primaries. To me, Obama is electable when put with McCain because he represents something entirely different than McCain’s conservative platform- a progressive approach to politics based on change. If Hillary is the nominee, I have no doubt that all of the Independent voters will vote for McCain because of Hillary’s sad stance that people either love her or hate her. Sadly, I also know that if Hillary is the nominee, while I will vote for her, I will not take an active role in her campaign at all. This is sad because I love campaigning and because Hillary’s nomination would mean loosing Democratic supporters like myself who are disillusioned about the bickering way that the Clinton’s run their politics.

Sorry about making this so long- feel free to double my length if not more. I love talking about this stuff. The Obama Campaign officially owns about 36 hours of my week with about 48 additional hours of my week dedicated to watching the news, reading the newspapers, and checking blogs- so basically- I am completely politics dominated 24/7 (and I love it!)!

- Obama Supporter