A lot of folks on this site might remember me as a big Edwards supporter. I even was critical of Kos when he said Edwards didn't have the money to compete in the General. I flirted a bit with the Obama campaign, because I just loved some of Obama's speeches and I think he is simply a good, good man.
But I'm switching to Hillary right now. That could change, I'm apparently a swing voter this primary season.
I want to say right off the bat that I am not a die-hard hillary fan. I think she has some issues just like all the rest of the candidates. That part is worth repeating: I think she has some issues just like all the rest of the candidates.
I know about Kyl-Lieberman, and I think as a whole Hillary's message on Iran is slightly to the right of the other candidates. I say slightly because all of the candidates (fyi, when I say all of the candidates, I mean all of the major candidates, gravel and dennis aside although they are good guys too) have pretty much said similiar things on Iran. I know, I know we can pick out points here and there that one candidate said X thing and another said Y thing, but the truth is there really isn't huge gaps between the candidates. Obama didn't vote on Kyl-Lieberman, that really doesn't surprise me much. I think its quite possible that Obama himself would have wanted to vote against it, but Obama the cautious politican and cautious staff couldn't do it. And we wouldn't really know what Johnny would have done because he couldn't vote on it. Its alot easier to say what you would have done than to actually do it--this was a huge problem for John Kerry and likely one for Edwards and to a lesser extent Obama on this particular vote. Nonetheless, obama's non-vote on Kyl-Lieberman does not excuse hillary's vote on it and I fully grant that. I still think that in practice, in actually policy, both hillary/obama will be very similiar on the mideast iran and iraq: they are both cautious politicans who won't do anything too stupid but than again wouldn't do anything too smart. I'm willing to take that at this point because I've seen enough over the last 18months of campaigning to know that's about as good as we're gonna get.
The other issue I think is important to remember about Hillary dovetails off of Bill's candidacy. And yeah, as many of you know I dislike Bill, to put it mildly, but there is something to remember about bill's presidency: the price of oil. The low price of oil under Bill was at least partly responsible for the economic expansion (yes, amoung other things) that marks his 8 years. A LOT of the reason people like bill is because of the economy, stupid (god knows it aint because of his morality in marriage). And if there is one person that knows that, its hillary. At the end of the day, cold or not, the fact that hillary is gonna want to keep the price of oil low makes me think she is gonna play it smart in the middle east. I know--thats not a GOOD reason really, to play it smart in the middle east. its not a GOOD reason to not start a war just because you dont want to pay more at the pump, but again, i'll take what I can get.
Lastly, and importantly, yeah, I do think its important to have a woman leader. And no, I wouldn't vote for Condi Rice if she were running. But guess what? She ain't running. Hillary is. Hillary isn't my first choice for women presidents, I like barbara boxer a lot better, but she isn't my last choice either. She will do a good job as president. She will be pretty good on the issues and she will fight the right wing media well. She will show that no matter how many years you try to kick a democrat---35!--that Democrat will not be kicked down. She will show that no matter how many years to kick a woman---35!--that woman will not be kicked down.