Another Democratic primary rant.
Listening to some coverage of the Democratic primary this morning while driving to and from Sami’s school, I heard some things that got my mind racing.
NPR ran a story where an 21-year-old Obama supporter and a 57-year-old Clinton supporter talked about why they chose their respective candidates. For the Obama supporter, there were a lot of words like “hope,” “charisma,” “energy.” For the Clinton supporter, it was less about sound-byte-able phrases and more about capability, experience and learning from past mistakes.
And I guess I’m getting nearer, putting a finer point on why it feels uncomfortable to me to support Obama, even though on a visceral level I find him more appealing.
I really want him to detail a plan for how he will execute his message of hope while in office. And I don’t feel that he can do it, because he’s never been in an executive role, he doesn’t understand the process challenges a president faces every day.
I think that every time campaign season comes around, people get windswept by the promises and glimmer of the candidates, and forget that no candidate, elected, can ever deliver the promises they made on the campaign trail. Most of them don’t have the slightest idea what obstacles beleaguer a president’s ideas.
Hillary Clinton does, however. Her first attempt at a comprehensive health care plan was a fiasco. She found out what it was like to be run over by the Republican Opposition bus.
I feel that her message isn’t as uplifting, on the surface, as Obama’s is. She doesn’t have the brilliant glamour, and she isn’t a thunderous, echoing orator. But she does talk practically about practical things, which is I suppose why she’s not as attractive a candidate. She actually knows the nuts and bolts of the job, and her practical view is honestly not as inspiring.
I honestly cannot vote on personality any more. Lucky, because I have voted in the primary already. No more voting for a while. I don’t find Hillary Clinton warm and fuzzy, but I don’t find her cold either. I think she is a woman applying for a job, and I feel that she is capable of doing the job.
People talk about “politics as usual” as a bad thing. But we’ve been conducting “politics as usual” since the Constitution was signed; a president alone isn’t going to be able to change that. It’ll take a sea change in the Congress as well, and while it could happen, I don’t see it as very likely.
As I’ve said before, I’d vote for Obama in November in an absence of Hillary. But I’d like him to start talking about what he will DO as president, and stop focusing on what the voters can do for him (aka Believe.) Because faith alone will not bring his ideas through Congress and to reality. He’s got to know how to work the system.
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he’s done a lot of work, even as a freshman congressman – see this blog for a list of some of his accomplishments:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/20/201332/807/36/458633
one of the things i’m struck by is his ability to garner support for his bills, where she’s had much more difficulty.
on an unrelated note, i find this a very frightening look into Hillary Clinton’s work prior to being a senator:
http://www.celsias.com/2008/02/19/an-open-letter-to-hillary-clinton-from-a-wellesley-college-alumna/
just food for thought…
See, I keep hearing Hillary-supporters say this, but I don’t see anyone but Hillary-supporters portraying him this way (and now McCain supporters, now that he’s gained enough momentum to be the front-runner). He has some very well-detailed plans on his website, along with additional .pdfs if the details on the main site aren’t enough. He is still the only candidate of any party who has gone to New Orleans and handed out a step-by-step plan to rebuild the city. He’s the only candidate who’s campaigned there and even mentioned a specific plan for rebuilding the city. I went to his rally in New York last summer and he discussed detailed plans for dealing with the continuing aftermath of 9/11 in a social sense that doesn’t involve invading countries. I feel like the media is doing him a great discredit by not showing this side of him because they’re attempting to make a contest out of the democratic nomination and actually have a chance at drama in the final election.
I have to admit that my opinions are completely based on news I hear on NPR – I have not done active research for either candidate. Which I think makes my opinions fair, if uninformed.
I agree, seeing what Tea and Mo have posted, that the media is doing Obama a disservice. I didn’t know a lot about what you both posted.
Re: the open letter to Hillary – there is a lot of good info in there, HOWEVER… A lot of the letter focuses on things that Bill did, many before the full impact of genetic engineering was widely known. Also, Monsanto was a bully in the agriculture field long before Bill Clinton took office (basing this on what I’ve read in /The Omnivore’s Dilemma/. We know so much more about food engineering than we did at that time.
I would hardly think that making friends in jobs is a bad thing. Even in places highly concentrated with evil people.
Yes, she was on the board at WalMart. My understanding was that she influenced them to move in more positive directions, like green locations, etc. I don’t think that the mere fact of being on the board of an organization means that one is evil. What better way to change a structure than to get in a position of power on the inside. That said, I will also admit I don’t know every detail.
All of this said, I am glad that you have contributed to this thread, and I’m glad in advance for anyone who WILL participate, because I trust info from my friends perhaps more than from the limited media I take in. Definitely more than the candidates’ websites (sorry, I work in politics, so I know that a candidate’s own controlled info contains a lot of propaganda and spin.) I can’t change who I voted for in the primary, and my vote is already decided either way for November, but I am always happy to learn.
Anyway. I hope I’m not starting outrageous fires… I’m just talking and thinking out loud here.
Full disclosure- I am an Obama supporter, and have been since the day he announced.
However, it is that very essence of malleable optimism that is fueling the Obama campaign. He is a tabula rasa onto which voters can project their own ideals. Who is against change? Who is against hope? No one. But who is against undoing the Bush tax cuts in order to fund the AMT gap? To the extent that ordinary voters even understand the issue, the answer is “probably half.”
In this regard, voter decisions are made in much the same way that consumers choose bottled water or buy cars. “What does voting for Obama (or drinking San Pellegrino, or driving a Subaru) say about ME?” It’s marketing- it’s why Vitamin Water is sold in gyms like LA Sports Club, and why Gatorade gets sold at Gold’s Gym.
Politicians are brands. Hilary is The Experienced Candidate. Obama is The Candidate of Change. Voters make up their minds not on policy, but on branding, for much the same reason that people who drink Vitamin Water don’t go to Gold’s Gym.
This is the way the system works, and has always worked, ever since Andrew Jackson positioned himself as the Friend of the Common Man. He wasn’t really a friend to anyone, but the voters thought he was.
I have learned something today – that’s always a bonus… thanks.
I dislike that people vote based on what they think it says to other people ABOUT them.
Another thing I thought I should note: I don’t think that Obama hasn’t done anything. I’m sure he’s achieved a great deal in Illinois State House and in the Senate. But I do think it takes having been through an executive office to really understand those challenges.
No, and I think one of the biggest issues is that both candidates are so, so exceptional, that the media is fabricating stuff to turn it into a contest. I really love Hillary– I just love Barack more at the moment. Which I thought would never happen– I always assumed I’d vote for her when she decided to run. Unfortunately, for me, she was the first of them to try to start poking holes in the other candidate’s platform, and I feel she’s made some very unfair statements about his candidacy, which has turned me off to her campaign and made me feel like if this is how she is operating now, she is going to continue to do that to detractors once she is in the White House. I think what it comes down to, really, is whether we want someone who will be effective at strong-arming a Democratic agenda through Congress, which is a place where I think she will be much more successful at than he will, or whether we wanr someone who is going be in a better position to raise awareness of issues and mobilize action among ordinary people on a grass roots level and fix a lot of our problematic overseas relationships,which I think he will be better at. Both of these are pretty admirable things that have the same ends in mind, it’s mainly that for me, right now, after a good ten years (start with the ridiculous Clinton impeachment trial that wasted half a presidential term) of feeling completely disenfranchised from the system, I feel like Obama’s way of doing things might be better for the country at large. That being said, I’m going to be really thrilled with either of them, because I think we have two really excellent people running.