I watched the Democratic debate last night and I was very pleased with both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s “performances.” It was the first debate where it was just the two of them, as John Edwards dropped out of the race earlier this week, and it was a total pleasure to watch. They both showed up strong, gave detailed, solid answers and actually debated in a civil and productive manner that highlighted their policy differences, but didn’t degenerate into a tense, squabbling argumentative back and forth. It was clear that they have an enormous amount of respect for each other and both just want to make a difference in the lives of ordinary citizens and bring healing to a nation that has endured an atrocious abuse of power and seen a marked loss in respect throughout the world over the past 8 years.
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I am an Obama supporter and have been since the very beginning, but I’ve always liked and had a lot of respect for Hillary. I read her book Living History in 2006 and it did a great job of showing how passionate she is, how hard she works and how much she cares and wants to do whatever she can to improve the lives of not only American citizens, but everyone around the world. I’d recently started to feel really negative about her and her campaign though, as I thought she was resorting to stretching the truth and intentionally twisting Obama’s words and his record and it really soured me towards her. Not to mention how inappropriate I felt it was for former President Clinton to be the one throwing the most mud. I felt like she was doing this out of desperation and that a lot of voters could see right through it, hence Obama’s landslide win in SC last weekend. She forced Obama to act defensive and the focus went from what our country needs and how to move forward and beat the Republicans, to nitpicking over words and actions of the past. I’m not saying that the past isn’t important, but the tone had become incredibly contentious and it certainly didn’t help her.
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I think Barack Obama has the ability to transcend party lines and bring people together to compromise and focus on fixing the country and the mess made during the past 8 years. After the Iowa caucuses, I latched on to the phrase (I'm not sure who said it) that Obama has the ability to “expand the Democratic voting base” by inspiring young people to get involved, appealing to Independents and even Republicans and making all of us believe that great change is possible. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that Hillary can do the same, as there are even Democrats who are saying that they would refuse to vote for her. Here is a great link to a Time Magazine article written in November called Obama’s Red State Appeal that talks about how he does appeal to non-Democrats. His book, The Audacity of Hope, is wonderful is just so aptly titled, for it really has started to feel like the government is so damaged and out of touch with who they’re working for and what their role is, that who are we to hope for any change? One of my favorite quotes is the Chinese proverb “Those who say it can not be done should not interrupt those doing it” and Senator Obama is one who wants to try to do it and more power to him I say.
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When it comes down to it, I will be thrilled to support whomever wins the Democratic nomination. I believe that it is imperative that a Democrat be elected the next President of the United States, so that our government can get back to business working for the people and our reputation throughout the world can be restored. Not to mention the fact that it is likely that within the next 8 years, there will be some openings on the Supreme Court. It scares me to think what the next 50 years could look like if the current (precarious) balance of liberal and conservative thought on the Court is gone and we are left with only a conservative, often religion-fueled interpretation of the Constitution which goes against what half of this country believes.
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The last question of the debate last night, posed to both candidates, was if they’d consider what a lot of Democrats, including myself, consider the “dream ticket” of Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton. Talk putting forward the best possible combination the Democratic Party has to offer, not to mention the historical implications of having a woman AND an African-American as the top two leaders of the country. Though they both played the “let’s not get ahead of ourselves” game, I was thrilled with their non-answers which seemed to imply that they’d both consider the possibility. I could see Obama going for the VP position easier than Hillary, but you never know. If they really want to do what’s best for the country, I’d like to think that they’d each swallow their pride and take the position that would enable them to make the biggest difference. Hopefully it won’t just be a dream.
Comment by The Man:
Here, here. Despite preferring Obama overall, I sort of want Hilary to win Super Tuesday in resounding fashion so the clamor of "Obama for VP" can start in earnest. That would be a GREAT ticket, not to mention set up Obama very nicely for a future presidential run.
Either of them as president is infinitely preferable to the sad parade of religiously deluded, bigoted windbags the GOP has offered up. Charisma-wise, Mitt Romney makes John Kerry seem like Muhammad Ali.