Friday, April 25, 2008
The AHU Official Endorsement for POTUS
Well, kinda. . . Exerpt from a letter to my Dad--Sums up best my current political thinking.
"I guess that when it comes to Obama I've taken a (measured) leap of faith to a certain extent. He's in a unique position by virtue of his newness, his thoughtfulness, and his intelligence to best shepherd us through some of the changes that, as I see it, are on the near horizon. And maybe some reconciliation stuff as well, who knows. Change happens in unexpected places and in unexpected ways.
By contrast, McCain is just out of his element. He admits he knows nothing about the economy or, frankly, many crucial issues the next president will face (despite his recently clunky attempts to portray the opposite). As for his supposed forte, foreign policy, he is pretty much an unrepentant Neocon (he was the main choice of Perle, Feith, et al back in 2000, and these same architects of the Iraq war are his primary foreign policy advisors now). He won the GOP by default, much to the chagrin of the party, yet he seems intent on echoing Bush's policies at a time where 81% of the country thinks we're on the wrong track.
Anyway, the Hillary thing just makes me even more sad, as I think all things considered she has the best bona fides to do the job (though she has rarely emphasized her real governing qualities in the campaign). Instead her campaign, once thought to be little more than her pre-coronation for the nomination, foundered on the rocks of an unexpected Obama campaign. She would, I have come to believe, throw Obama (and her parties ideals and issues) under the bus before November in order to look toward running again in 2012.
There is really no mathematical way she can win without totally subverting the electoral choice of the party voters, via the superdelegates. And if that happened minus a really, really serious Obama implosion (the old "catch me in bed with a live man or dead woman" cliche), its a sure bet the animosity created by such convention moves would doom her general election candidacy anyway. So why persist unless she knows something really, really nasty about Obama or if she's thinking ahead rather than for all of the policies that she espouses in her speeches and ads?
Funny isn't it how the more 'democratic' of the parties put such an undemocratic counterweight into its process? No worse overall I guess than the winner-take-all primaries of the GOP, designed to annoint a candidate preferable to the GOP bigwigs, which didn't happen this year when Romney and Huckabee's fight defied the norm and left McCain unexpectedly in the driver's seat.Alas, I am forced to make a choice. Indeed not my favorite, but I've made the jump because I want serious change, and frankly in the coming years I expect serious change will happen regardless of our wishes, and I think Obama is the best person to be at the helm.
Of course, I could be utterly mistaken. Such are elections.
Well, kinda. . . Exerpt from a letter to my Dad--Sums up best my current political thinking.
"I guess that when it comes to Obama I've taken a (measured) leap of faith to a certain extent. He's in a unique position by virtue of his newness, his thoughtfulness, and his intelligence to best shepherd us through some of the changes that, as I see it, are on the near horizon. And maybe some reconciliation stuff as well, who knows. Change happens in unexpected places and in unexpected ways.
By contrast, McCain is just out of his element. He admits he knows nothing about the economy or, frankly, many crucial issues the next president will face (despite his recently clunky attempts to portray the opposite). As for his supposed forte, foreign policy, he is pretty much an unrepentant Neocon (he was the main choice of Perle, Feith, et al back in 2000, and these same architects of the Iraq war are his primary foreign policy advisors now). He won the GOP by default, much to the chagrin of the party, yet he seems intent on echoing Bush's policies at a time where 81% of the country thinks we're on the wrong track.
Anyway, the Hillary thing just makes me even more sad, as I think all things considered she has the best bona fides to do the job (though she has rarely emphasized her real governing qualities in the campaign). Instead her campaign, once thought to be little more than her pre-coronation for the nomination, foundered on the rocks of an unexpected Obama campaign. She would, I have come to believe, throw Obama (and her parties ideals and issues) under the bus before November in order to look toward running again in 2012.
There is really no mathematical way she can win without totally subverting the electoral choice of the party voters, via the superdelegates. And if that happened minus a really, really serious Obama implosion (the old "catch me in bed with a live man or dead woman" cliche), its a sure bet the animosity created by such convention moves would doom her general election candidacy anyway. So why persist unless she knows something really, really nasty about Obama or if she's thinking ahead rather than for all of the policies that she espouses in her speeches and ads?
Funny isn't it how the more 'democratic' of the parties put such an undemocratic counterweight into its process? No worse overall I guess than the winner-take-all primaries of the GOP, designed to annoint a candidate preferable to the GOP bigwigs, which didn't happen this year when Romney and Huckabee's fight defied the norm and left McCain unexpectedly in the driver's seat.Alas, I am forced to make a choice. Indeed not my favorite, but I've made the jump because I want serious change, and frankly in the coming years I expect serious change will happen regardless of our wishes, and I think Obama is the best person to be at the helm.
Of course, I could be utterly mistaken. Such are elections.
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