Voting for Hillary because she’s a woman
Okay, the last I have to say on the topic of politics for a while. It is pretty clear from all the polling that women are voting for Hillary in large numbers, and African-Americans are voting for Obama in large numbers. The Press has mostly discussed this in the context of men not voting for Hillary, and whites not voting for Obama, but the flip side is more important to me.
Voting for Hillary because she's a woman is a stupid way to pick a President. The same is true of voting for Obama because he's black. I understand that it has been a long time coming, and that either one is likely to be the best chance in a generation for a woman/African-American to ascend to the highest office. But you can't vote with your heart when you're choosing the leader of the free world.1
As a white man, I know I don't have much footing here, except to say that I would clearly vote for either of them over the white man in the race (McCain), but not based on race or gender. Nor, truth be told, on the issues. Obama and Clinton are very close on most points, close enough that the differences aren't important to me. Rather, I voted for them based on what kind of President I think they will be, and whether they can beat the white guy in November.
It doesn't matter to me if my President is white, black, male or female. And it really shouldn't matter to you.
- Though that title may be in doubt nowadays, thanks to W. (↩)
The fact that Hillary is a women is just icying on the cake. I like her agenda and compassion.
I wrestled with my consciousness last night thinking about what will be best for people in terms of the candidates. I discovered that I am happy with any of the three remaining candidates and I feel lucky. i realized I will be for Barrack if he wins the democratic race. If Hillary would pick a lame running mate I would be in the Obama camp in a hurry. If Obama split from the democrats as an independent and had a good running mate it would be a tough call for me. The word is that Obama has money and Hillary is hurting for funds. I would like the two candidates to get together and do something for the party together then debate and finish off the primaries. Like they could come out and say they are united on civil rights. and do something together to show the strength of the democratic agenda.
I think we have to turn back the clock on violence in the world. We need to go in the direction of less violence. I thought the Clinton doctrine helped to do this through arms negotiations and obviously more cops on the street. I thought the world was heading in the right direction with the Clinton diplomacy. Places that were hot suddenly became calm. We also rose to the occasion to stop the brutality of the serbs.
I am embarrassed by William Clinton. I think Hillary stuck with him in hardtimes. I would love to see a presidential divorce.
With H. Clinton I think we may see a GI bill, universal Health care, support for head start and maybe even planned parenthood. Measure to help the poor. Concentration on fiscal stimulus for other groups not on the top of the food chain. Maybe visitor rights for our migrant workers.
Maybe Barrack is doing something similar. Barracks demographics are interesting: young and very young voters are a big part of the Obama supports. I don't want them to be disappointed from a democratic party point of view.
I have nothing to base this on but the very vaguest of perceptions, but Hillary seems like she'd be more of a scrapper if she were sitting in the big chair. Whether this is good or bad depends on the situation she's in, I suppose. As of the writing of this comment, I plan to vote for Obama this year (and not because he's black or likes teal).