anythings.org

It took me a little longer than Cate, but I was finally able to articulate in a coherent manner why I can’t support Barack Obama.

I’ve been feeling a lot of unwarranted political pressure in my office and my life lately. Everyone but myself in the office supports Barack Obama, and while a few people are supportive of my advocacy for Hillary Clinton, the majority of them are not. It is the same with my friends - most of them support Barack and are not afraid to be crude and insulting towards my candidate of choice. I try to maintain a level of respect with it comes to the upcoming Presidential election simply because, well, my opinion isn’t hateful, rude, or insulting.

I have several reasons why I have chosen Hillary over Barack, and most of them have to do with her policies on key issues, her experience, and my belief in her ability to do the job. I cannot support Barack because he has been consistently vague about his policies during his campaign, he has almost no experience, and I do not believe he can do the job as well as I believe Hillary can. I do not feel comfortable having someone who was a Senator for one term (regardless of their potentially shady past, all politicians are dirty) running the country I live in. We would not want someone who has only been a doctor for three years inventing experimental treatments and executing them with no supervision whatsoever.

Take it from me and Gloria Steinem, if Barack was a woman, his lack of experience would be a huge issue. People are used to men running the country, and they are willing to elect the far less experienced candidate because they want to keep things the way they are. And, personally, I couldn’t agree more with her. I am not a fan of saying “what if he were a woman…” in situations like this, but I think it’s time we take it a bit more seriously when it comes to Obama:

The woman in question became a lawyer after some years as a community organizer, married a corporate lawyer and is the mother of two little girls, ages 9 and 6. Herself the daughter of a white American mother and a black African father — in this race-conscious country, she is considered black — she served as a state legislator for eight years, and became an inspirational voice for national unity.

[…] I’m supporting Senator Clinton because like Senator Obama she has community organizing experience, but she also has more years in the Senate, an unprecedented eight years of on-the-job training in the White House, no masculinity to prove, the potential to tap a huge reservoir of this country’s talent by her example, and now even the courage to break the no-tears rule. I’m not opposing Mr. Obama; if he’s the nominee, I’ll volunteer. Indeed, if you look at votes during their two-year overlap in the Senate, they were the same more than 90 percent of the time. Besides, to clean up the mess left by President Bush, we may need two terms of President Clinton and two of President Obama.

Yes, Obama is an appealing candidate because of more than just his sex or race. But still, he is severely lacking in experience. Severely. While I prefer Hillary’s health care plan to Barack’s, there are still other issues with his campaign. Very rarely have I heard him state any concrete policies - except for the fact that he objected to Iraq from day one, something he mentions in every speech I’ve seen or read - other than his opinion on health care and the war. While these are two very important issues for me, I don’t like his policies. As far as my other pet issues, I know where Hillary stands without looking at her voting record or browsing through various websites containing political information. I know almost nothing about Barack’s issues from his campaign. While I have done the background research and looked at his voting record thoroughly, I learned nothing from his campaign regarding his plans. Other than, of course, that he wants to make change happen.

I am more than happy to get behind change. I am 100% about change. However, I am not happy to get behind change when I don’t know what will be changing. Barack isn’t a person running for President: he has changed his campaign and carefully shaped it so that he is a movement running for President.

I think Barack would make a wonderful President - someday. Not now, no way. His experience isn’t enough to be running the country. While I like both Democratic candidates, I feel that the President should be elected because of myriad factors, not just because he has ran a compelling campaign that people have fallen for. I think Barack needs the experience of being Vice President or at least another Senate term before I can comfortably get behind him as a Presidential candidate.
Of course, if it comes down to it, I will vote for any Democrat to keep McCain and Huckabee out of the White House. It’ll be a reluctant half-hearted vote, though, and that’s not the way I like to vote.

But no matter which candidate secures the Democratic nomination, I will still be disappointed in my political party. No candidate running, including those who have dropped out, supported all my issues. Federal funding for abortion, proper sex education, VAWA, LGBT marriage and adoption rights, the ERA, allowing polygamy (not in the creepy extremist Mormon way that involves brainwashing 12 year olds), health care, stopping the war, enhancing education and funding for college, repairing social security, rethinking and reorganizing the welfare system, fixing tax cuts for the upper class, and many other issues that no one seems to pay attention to or think are important. Which, hey, I wasn’t expecting. I doubt my dream candidate would ever run. I’m too liberal to have a dream candidate in the White House.