Here's my breakdown and I appreciate you reading:
Hillary Clinton: As a business owner, the Bill Clinton Presidency was one of the creation of my business and excellent growth. The focus on fiscal discipline was excellent. That in tandem with the technology boom was a heck of a winning combination for many of us. The Clinton years brought much tighter environmental restrictions, a nationwide expansion of police officers, although not quite the 100,000 officers as they claim, because some computers and technology counted as a though they were a person. Our stature in the world was the highest it had been in many years. The Clinton years were also one of great promise that never became what it could be. The right wing attack machine was in full force and turned our nation's politics into something disgusting and dirty. An fetishlike sick obsession with the Clintons. We lost the majority and the Bill Clinton did make concessions to get things done because he lost the majority. So it was either get part of what he wanted done of absolutely nothing. Due to the Clinton Presidency from the Congress to local state races, Democrats lost all over the place. In the end, we had a Democratic President and we were bleeding Governorships, state Reps, etc.
I've seen race injected into our contest, which greatly concerns me. I've seen the Righty bloggers talk of how black voters will always vote for Dems and they don't do anything for them. I've now seen many on our left talk about how the Clinton years didn't do things for African-Americans. That amazes me. During his Presidency, we had the largest expansion of black wealth and middle-class in the history of this country.
Ok, so now I get to Hillary herself. When George W. Bush ran, I was disgusted because he was only running because of his daddy. No way around it, if he was George Smush, he would be nowhere. Hillary is in the same boat as she is only there because of her being the wife of the former President. If she was Hillary Mindon, she'd be just another Senator, but being a former First Lady does give you some special added stature, with good reason. However, no one can dispute that there are endless differences between Dubya and Hillary. To start with, I think the IQ is amazingly different! :)
When the Clintons were in office, the right-wing used the talking point that it was a co-presidency and Hillary was running the show with Bill. I find it funny that in our primary, many who oppose her say that she didn't do anything, she was just First Lady. I think it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Mrs. Clinton was kept in the loop on about just about everything in that White House minus Bill Clinton's sex escapades. She, to me, comes across as extremely intelligent and I think in retrospect would have been better off with her as the Clinton President versus Bill. I think that she would not have put up with nearly the amount of Republican bull and slime that he did.
Hillary voted for the Iraq war. That's a certain minus, however, just about everyone except Ron Paul running did as well, or supported it---minus Barack Obama. Hillary is also a person who attempted to tackle one of the greatest disasters in our country, HEALTH CARE. All we got was Republican smear and lies that haven't ended until this day. So, most of the world has a health care system that has a government component and most, not all, provide a better product than our so-called wonderful privatized system that causes half of American bankruptcies. Over a third of this country is already getting their health care from the government. Hm, when my wife and I were paying for health care in Florida before our kids in '02, we paid nearly $400 a month for bare bones coverage of a 3,000 deductible, 60/40 coverage, no drug coverage. Give me a break. She attempted to tackle a MAJOR issue and look at our situation today. Republicans show as always that they don't give a damn about improving our country just dividing it.
Whether it is Hillary or Barack, their plans make sense. You have a the government provide so many customers that the insurers cut us all a break in the pricing. That's what happens in big business, just here in a grander scale. For those righties, this sure as hell isn't "socialized medicine," however our system is such garbage now that the socialized medicine option doesn't seem so bad.
Anyway, the pros and cons of Hillary Clinton are enormous. As the first female President, that would be revolutionary and exciting. My wife has decided to support her and made a very interesting comment to me, even though Barack Obama would be the first "black President," he's still a man, and to her a woman President would be an even greater change. I happen to agree with her. It would be a fundamentally different look at the world and I would hope it would be inspiring to women regardless of their politics across the country. I personally like many of Hillary Clinton's policy proposals and their focus on economic sanity. The major downside is bringing the Clinton haters back for their daily orgy of Clinton bashing. It gets old.
Barack Obama: A wonderful speaker, exciting, and appealing to young voters (Bill Clinton was as well, lets not forget). From Naral to environmental groups, his voting record is excellent. Just as Mrs. Clinton's voting record. Truth be told, we have two candidates with mostly the same positions. As for Obama's experience, he does have many years of state legislative work behind him in addition to the the Senate. He's a lawyer and is inspiring to many.
Barack Obama to me symbolizes what I hope American can become, voting or not voting for a person regardless of their race. To have a viable candidate who is not a WASP is exciting, however, it poses some other issues. At the workplace, many people that I know have dealt with the issue of Barack vs. Hillary with African-American women. Our friends and my wife have gotten the same answer from literally every African-American woman that they work with, they will vote for Obama "because he's black," but they honestly would rather vote for the woman candidate. That is WILDLY disheartening and downright upsetting to hear this. We live in Atlanta and this is something that I've heard many of times here as well. I'm not going to get into the many issues with regard to that except that it you are voting for the candidate because he's simply just of your race that to me is racist in itself. No different from family members of mine who voted for Gore/Lieberman because Lieberman is Jewish, even though they might not have voted for the Dem. It's just a point that underscores the racial problems that are rampant throughout America. In these ladies (the ones that we know, I'm not talking about everyone) match up of Hillary vs. Barack, the point that I'm trying to make is that they want to vote for the woman candidate with regard to bringing a woman's point of view, perspective to the Presidency, to keep breaking down gender walls (that still exist nearly everywhere), and to see the wages of men and women get on par with one another, however, simply due to Barack being African-American, they will vote for him. It leaves me speechless and shows how far we are away from progress in this country.
I find Barack to be a WONDERFUL speaker. He's moving and he gets us thinking about a POSITIVE future. I'm impressed with him, however, there isn't much to judge him on. He could be like Jimmy Carter and be complete Presidential flop, or an inspiring leader akin to JFK. He's our great unknown. I think that we have on our side a group of some who will vote for him out of white liberal guilt, and I wish this wasn't the case. When the Clinton adviser was quoted the other day and racked through the coals that Obama would be their "black hip friend," I'm sorry, but that wasn't a racist remark, it was the truth. I know so many people that have that white liberal guilt. The types that feel so bad for African-Americans, but they clutch their purse a little tighter on the elevator and really think racist things, but cover it up. I PROUDLY worked as the only white person at an African-American newspaper for nearly a year and a half. I was there because I was qualified to be there and enjoyed the job immensely. I don't grab my wallet when I see a black guy and I when single proudly dated African-American women. I can put my money where my mouth is. So it leads me to this: THIS CONTEST IS BECOMING ABOUT RACE. And this is horrible.
Now, the Clintons are racist. Jesse Jackson, who is a shakedown artist, and Al Sharpton are coming out of the woodwork. Jesse Jackson Jr., the Obama co-chair is slinging accusations at the Clintons and making this about race, although Obama has nothing to say on the matter. His campaign spokesperson says that people should make their own judgment on what was said by Hillary and Bill. The high road would have been to say of course the comments weren't meant racially (and if you read and hear quite clearly what Bill said), they weren't. It was about Iraq, but now it has turned into race. It's becoming about race. Yes, race. It's so sad, and depressing. My fear is that we're on the cusp of many African-Americans saying that if you don't vote for Barack, you've got to be racist. I pointed out my history in the black community because I'm clearly not one of those as many of us aren't, but to get lumped in just as always gets old. You can't always point to race. My wife's own boss will vote for Barack simply because he is black, although she likes Hillary more and thinks that she'd be more effective. Isn't that racist in itself?
Barack is unproven. That's not good, not bad. HOWEVER, the first two Clinton years were a disaster because they didn't know how the federal government ran. It was what led to the Gingrich revolution. Not all the Clinton hating, just that the Clinton Administration screwed up their handling of most issues the first two years and it led to many lost objectives during the race. If you don't know Washington, it's hard to get in there and do things right away. Maybe Obama can do it, I don't know, none of us do. If his actions match his words and rhetoric, he could be damn good.
Hillary certainly knows the White House and how the whole system works from day one. That's good, however, the baggage that the right wingers and the media has tacked on the Clintons certainly might make for four long years of partisan hatred. I will not that people who say nearly 30 years of Bush Clinton. It's actually been 20 of the Bushes and 8 of Clinton.
I'm undecided. I truly am. The one candidate that ever inspired me was Bill Bradley running in 2000. I greatly wished that Al Gore would have gotten into the race, I would have proudly voted for Mr. Gore. I stand undecided and have until February 5th to figure it out.
BTW- I have omitted Senator Edwards for a reason. A personal issue of mine is bankruptcy and John Edwards voted over and over for the revised bankruptcy bill when he was in the Senate. He didn't vote for the passed revised and devastating bill in '05 as he was out of the Senate. He now says that it he was in the Senate he would have voted against it, and apologizes for his past votes. It's easy to say that you're not going to vote for something when you are not there, but when your entire past voting record was in favor of it, it's hard for me to believe. We now have a bankruptcy law written by the credit card industry, beautiful. Many of our best citizens have to fill not for reckless spending, but getting ill. Their medical offices won't work with them on billing plans, or the cost is just too out of control, and they simply can't pay their way out of their illness bills. It's a disgrace that it happens in America.
Thank you for reading, I know it was long, but I hope you enjoyed reading.
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