Hillary Clinton seems to evoke strong personal feelings from many people. That one can "hate" someone else without knowing him personally is a bit juvenile, to be frank. Yet, many claim to find Hillary odious. Now, while I don't claim to hate Barack Obama (or anyone, I don't know personally, for that matter), I do think that in the face of so much vitriol against Hillary, it is only fair that those of us who are not especially impressed by Barack Obama speak up and explain ourselves.
Every time I tune in to CNN and hear BO give a stump speech or address the media in other fora, I find myself wincing. At first I could not put my finger on precisely why this is. And then it hit me, while I was listening to his diatribe about having "the hope stewed out of me" for the 11th time: Anyone who claimeth to inspire me, annoyeth the hell out of me . The fact that Obama is an empty vessel into which people of all walks of life are dumping their hopes and dreams, is not his fault. The guy is charismatic; good for him. What I find revolting are the fact that he pretty much says that people ought to do this and that he claims he will make a good president on account of his ability to"inspire" .
Perhaps I am just cynical, and the hope has already been stewed out of me. I prefer to think, though, that I am quite hopeful. Hope, however, does not live by platitudes alone. Hillary is by no means free of trite rhetoric. But neither does she claim that the latter will make her a good president. I think that if BO is elected, we will be enthralled by his charm for about a year. And then the luster will start to fade. We will ask ourselves the questions we should be asking now. "What made us think he could bring about `change'?" "What kind of change was he talking about to begin with?"
Hillary on the other hand, does not claim to be better than, or above the system. Her presidency will not be romanticized. She won't insist that she inspires me. Instead, she will frighten people with her cackle and get s*** done!
I think you're right, if style is the only issue. But Obama actually has better positions than Hillary -- leaving aside the campaign, where everyone is trying to look the same, Hillary's foreign policy history is much more hawkish, and her view of the powers of the presidency much more expansive, than Obama's. I don't like either of those things
ReplyDeleteAmen, sistah!
ReplyDeleteI am STILL waiting to hear one reason from Oprah, his biggest fan, as to WHY I should vote for the man other than SHE says to do so. And I only just heard her admit it's NOT just because he's black.
Oh well...my vote is already cast today.
Hear, hear, Matt. In Britain, people were saying things similar to what people are saying about Obama now about a certain politician in 1997. His campaign song was D-Ream's "Things Can Only Get Better." His name was Tony Blair.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I don't hugely dislike him, I just dislike all the hype about him. Although I hope Clinton becomes president, if Obama wins the primary, I'll be rooting for him over any Republican come November.
Barack Obama is just a man. He is a smart, eloquent, charismatic man, but only a man nonetheless. That said, his campaign is about much more than just the man you see and hear. The campaign is about inspiring average Americans to stop the cynicism you yourself profess to carry on your shoulders. It is about getting people interested in their democracy again. It is about the belief and the hope that regular people can band together and make changes that nobody thought were possible.
ReplyDeleteNow let's talk about what this campaign is not about. It's not about electing a black president. It's not about blind idealism. It's not about empty promises and cheap thrills. Most importantly, it's not about playing the same games with the same players by the same rules and expecting something positive to result.
On policy, Clinton and Obama are very similar creatures. However the movements behind them could not be more disparate. Clinton's followers tend to be a combination of older people uncomfortable with change, and cynics like yourself, who don't believe that the Obama movement has substance. Hillary supporters on average also do not believe that the changes Obama proposes to make are possible. Accordingly, I will always choose the politics of hope and inspiration over the politics of defeatism that masks itself as realism.
YES WE CAN! Obama '08!
I'm only now reading this commentary, but as a former Hillary Clinton supporter (since like 1992 when I CALLED IT and declared she would be President some day and if she couldn't she would "damn try hard to be") I understand the sentiment.
ReplyDeleteOn this day, though, in this time, Barack Obama does inspire me and I hope that with the support of people like Hillary Clinton, he *will* get s*** done, too.
I also had a strong desire to see Hillary as president. I think you made MANY valid points. What I have had to accept is that the new wave of thought in the Democratic Party/the younger Democrats have spoken. They have spoken with force. So, I have come to accept that vision. I worked diligently on Hillary's campaign. After my trip to San Francisco, I felt as though Obama had become the patron saint of the city. Obama was everywhere. What I do embrace with gratitude is the fact that our nation is on a new and vital course. To see a black man elected revives my hope in America. I must admit I like the fact that he had the most-liberal voting record in the Senate for 2007. And, hey, Joe Biden is Catholic. Joe Biden had the third most-liberal voting record. Above all of them, I think Dianne Feinstein would do an outstanding job.
ReplyDelete