So I have been spending a lot of time in my unemployment trolling the lefty blogs, and following the presidential primaries pretty closely. I was disappointed but not surprised when John Edwards dropped out, as he was my favorite candidate. I flirted a bit with Chris Dodd, simply because I was so impressed with his work on FISA and because I appreciate someone actually making--gasp!--the freaking Constitution a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. But obviously he was never a serious contender. Hopefully in 2009 he'll replace that worthless dishrag Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader.
So now, it's officially down to Clinton and Obama. HRC and BHO, for short. For me, that's not a hard choice--nor an unpleasant one, actually. In most years past, I've looked at the Democratic field, and the best I've been able to muster up is, "meh, well, whoever it is will be better than the alternative, I suppose." But I actually like both Hillary and Obama. On balance, though, I much prefer BHO. Hillary's better on health care and I don't actually mind that she's brutal and nasty instead of bipartisan and conciliatory--mostly because for the past 12 years, when Democrats have been bipartisan and conciliatory they get it shoved up their collective backside.
But for the most part, their positions are not meaningfully distinguishable on most issues. They'll both push the same type of agenda, they'll both appoint COMPETENT AND QUALIFIED cabinet members and federal judges, all of which will be a briskly refreshing change from the sh*tpile collection of war criminals we have allegedly running the government now. Where I think they differ meaningfully is that Hillary, for all the fact that she is (to quote Teddy Roosevelt) "OUR sonofabitch," still represents More Of The Same for me. She's a perfect example of the problem of moneyed corporate interests buying access and buying government, and her handlers are still all about the old "triangulation," "third-way" crap that I hate. And frankly, I think Obama values civil liberties more than she does, and I also think that if push comes to shove, HRC doesn't necessarily have that much of a problem with Bush's "Unitary Executive" theory of governing, as long as she gets to be the Unitary Executive. And I got a problem with that.
So anyway, it's been entertaining watching the primaries, seeing Obama really gain on Hillary. But now I'm getting nervous. I don't want a brokered convention, and I don't want some smoke-filled back room of party insider "superdelegates" deciding who our nominee is. Not after Florida in 2000 (when the smoke-filled room in question happened to be housing the Supreme Court).
So. Thoughts?
2 comments:
oh yes, i do like you for a reason.
not just cause now you are my sister-in-law, and a lawyer with a heart (& fast-forwarding, you aren't afraid to tangle with a dry cleaner).
you have a beating political heart.
HRC vs. BHO.
you know, before i really researched, i was being all "stick with my team, when can i vote for a woman again?" sort of thing. but you know, i did vote for Barack. even though it didn't really help, in CA, cause we gave it to Hilary.
where is Al Gore? i think he is just sitting this round out, waiting. He was my guy.
ok, surprised no one else commented.
but i am glad to read what you are up to.
I'm thinking of putting up an updated political post later on this weekend....
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