[Update: Oh WOW. Top of the Rec List?! First time ever in 4.5 years! Thanks!!!]
As my past comments and diaries over 2007 will indicate, I have been leaning toward Hillary Clinton for the nomination.
But my support has increasingly felt hollow over the past month or two. Much of it was from a starting assumption of her strengths as frontrunner and her command of the issues at hand facing the next president. But increasingly I have come to feel that all three candidates are quite well versed on the issues, and that Obama and Clinton are equally well funded and endorsed and supported by the voters as they compete for the nomination (and quite likely the Presidency itself). Meanwhile, the attacks on Obama have started to turn me off in a "gut" way. And so finally, Bill Clinton's "Jesse Jackson" comment after Obama's historic victory in South Carolina came to serve as the tipping point for me.
I still admire Hillary Clinton in many ways, and if she is our nominee I will still work hard to deliver the Presidency into Democratic hands. I'll donate generously and spend some weekends up in NH (I am in MA).
But I also admire Barack Obama and John Edwards. Edwards at this point is not viable. Obama has, by and large, conducted his campaign with dignity and a compelling vision. I cannot say the same for Clinton, and much less for her husband. And that's a shame given Hillary's considerable strengths on the campaign trail as more voters get to know her in person. But in the end, she is sanctioning if not authorizing the attacks on Obama, particularly those made by her husband. I'm stunned at his unpresidential behavior, frankly... I thought some folks here were exaggerating until I went on YouTube and saw for myself.
Everybody in America with two brain cells knows what Bill is trying to do when he offers some new math: "Barack Obama = Jesse Jackson." And that comment doesn't stand alone; there have been others. The anti-Edwards robocall; the pointless dismissal of MLK Jr's role in bringing civil rights as far as they've come; and so much more. Each instance, I tried to suck it up and say, well, politics ain't for sissies, there are things ya gotta do if ya wanna win. And the Clintons, the record shows, know how to win.
But at some point you have to call things what they are. Is the campaign being run with a foundation of integrity and vision? Can we be proud of it? And more to the point, is today's campaign being run in a way that will inspire, and not alienate, in the general election come November?
This is where I am increasingly uncomfortable with the Clintons. Note: until a month ago, I was saying "Hillary" all the time. Now I am saying "The Clintons" because the past month has made it indisputably clear this is a 2-for-1 combo plate. And I can't believe how viscerally Bill Clinton is turning me off. And I don't think it's being lost on other Americans, both Democrat and Independent and moderate-Republican. Meanwhile, Obama's campaign has (by and large) fought fair and has conducted itself in ways that not only won't bite them in the ass come November, but could actually serve as tailwinds to carry them all the way to the White House. The field teams, the groundwork, the positive messages, all of it.
I'm as surprised as anyone to say it, but: at this point, come Super Tuesday, February 5, I am probably voting for Barack Obama in the Massachusetts primary.