About a (half?) year ago (or whenever this too-long primary season all started) I was expecting Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee, even if I was hoping (audaciously) for Obama to catch fire. I figured that, worst-case scenario, Hillary would win and Obama could be VP. And while I wanted the opposite, I would have been OK with that.
My, how things have changed. Obama is the frontrunner now, and Hillary is, as we know all too well, hanging around and hanging on. It’s obvious now that neither Obama or Clinton would settle for the VP slot, and indeed, neither would likely have the other anyway.
But here’s the thing: I was, and probably still am, prepared to vote for whoever is the Democratic candidate (what, vote for McCain? Please). But Mrs. Clinton is pushing it. I could not disagree more with the way she has run her campaign, and find in her more similarities to Mr. Bush than any Democrat. I have long thought that a woman would be a change for the better, as far as leaders go, but I have serious doubts that Clinton is the one.
And since I brought that up, one other thing should be clear: I have never considered voting for Obama because he is a (half) black man and his presidency would be historic, any more than voting for Clinton because she is a woman. His blackness (and her…female-ness?) are simply not a factor. End of story. I know there are people out there who have, and will, vote for Clinton because she is a woman and Obama because he is black, and I would put them on a par with people who would vote for Bush (or McCain) because they’d like to have a beer with him. Stupid.
Anyway, I don’t understand the way that Clinton has run her campaign. The wreckage that she is leaving in her wake is downright shitty, and in a year where most any Democrat should win, she is making a race appear where there never was one. And while I voted twice for her husband, well, Hillary is not Bill. Not even close. I don’t see her appeal. I was ready to look for it and to accept it, but man, I don’t get it at all. She appears to be as secretive and deceptive as our current president. I have a pretty strong feeling that her presidency would be a disaster. I don’t even think she’s all that liberal, and she seems to be the kind of person who drive people away from the party instead of to.
Which brings me back to Obama. I was with him before this began, hoping he would run before he ran, and happy to see him come as far as he has. I could care less about “the party,” I’m hardly a true Democrat anyway, but this guy is the type that will bring Republicans, Independents, and apathetic voters into the mix. More than that, he’s inspiring. Even more than that, he’s thoughtful, eloquent, unafraid to engage, and smart enough to not surround himself with “yes men.” Who isn’t sick of “yes men” by now?
He couldn’t be any more different than George Bush, or Hillary Clinton, for that matter. And so it appears that the only way he won’t get the nomination is if Hillary does something truly extraordinary and beyond the pale. So I think I can say, with some certainty, that if she did get the nomination, I don’t believe I would vote for her.