I have been attempting to articulate my choice of Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama for some time now. My natural inclination would be to be very attracted to Obama's message of hope and unity, but you see, I lived through the 90's. Bill Clinton's message in the '92 campaign was one of hope and unity as well (see: "I believe in a place called Hope" from the campaign and "there is nothing wrong with America that be cured by what is right with America" from the inaugural). As a young person just out of college, I was very inspired. Unfortunately, the right did everything it could to discredit a sitting Democratic President, they had no care, no USE, for bi-partisanship and unity.
Paul Krugman does a much better job of explaining this in his
column today:
First, those who don’t want to nominate Hillary Clinton because they don’t want to return to the nastiness of the 1990s — a sizable group, at least in the punditocracy — are deluding themselves. Any Democrat who makes it to the White House can expect the same treatment: an unending procession of wild charges and fake scandals, dutifully given credence by major media organizations that somehow can’t bring themselves to declare the accusations unequivocally false (at least not on Page 1).
The point is that while there are valid reasons one might support Mr. Obama over Mrs. Clinton, the desire to avoid unpleasantness isn’t one of them.
So, as I look around at the young people all around me who are excited by Obama's message, I too get excited. Without the mobilization of the youth vote, the US will never break the chokehold the right has on our country. I just remember what happened to the last guy, and I have no reason to expect anything less from the right in the years ahead.
The 'bonus' in this primary election is that we have an extremely qualified candidate in Hillary Clinton, who KNOWS the battles ahead. She's lived through them in the past and has learned from them (see her successful work in the Senate).
I hear many people say we cannot afford to fight the battles of the 90's again. I agree. That's why my choice for President is Hillary. She won't have to learn how to do the job, she is ready from day one.
Also, Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office represents CHANGE. Change from the damaging policies of the Bush administration in EVERY way, from foreign policy to domestic and economic affairs. Inaugurating our nation's first woman president will send a signal throughout the world that we have changed and America can go about restoring its place in the world.
None of this should be construed as an attack on Senator Obama, who is an inspirational figure. In fact, I very much want him to be on the scene, what could be better than a Clinton-Obama ticket in the fall? His presence on the ticket would continue to mobilize and inspire young voters. Now, if we can all just get though the next few weeks of primary season without tearing each other down, we can make sure that the person sworn into office in January 2009 will be a Democrat.
