I endorse Hilary Clinton

Politics is a large percentage of what Wendy and I ruminate on these days. We’ve signed up for the Democrats Abroad global primary so we can vote and have our voice be heard on February fifth. Yes, we actually get delegates. We watched the January 21st debate the other day. We’re still looking for a place to watch the latest debate. Like many dems, we started out uninterested in who won the nomination, knowing that we’ll support whoever gets it.

In the past few weeks, we’ve both come to support Clinton. (Me a little more so than Wendy, who still might be swayed to Obama’s side.) She looked good in the debate while Obama didn’t seem to have the fabled charisma that I had heard so much about. I thought Edwards did great as well. A vast improvement over his performance of 2004.

My arguments for Hilary are many.

Unity - Unlike Obama, she’s made no mention of unity. No mention of how important it is to move forward and beyond these last 7 years of America being run rough shod over by the current administration. This is one of Obama’s main selling points.

I hate that.

I’m not interested in burying the past 7 years and pretending they didn’t happen. I’m not interested in covering up the past for the sake of moving on. I’m not interested in letting Bush and his conies get away with a false war based on cooked intelligence. I want to know why this administration lost 400+ days of emails leading up to the Iraq war. I want to know who was responsible for the outing of a CIA agent. I want to know a lot of things about the last 7 years that Congress seems unwilling to investigate.

I’m not interested in Bush continuing to ignore consequences for his actions, like he’s been able to do all his life.

Health Care – I think it is vital that America get national health care. My friend Doug just found out he has Lymphoma (Cancer of the lymph nodes.) He was out of work with no health insurance for 5 months. Had it hit a few months ago, his life would be ruined. Obama’s plan has holes in it. Hilary has learned from the past and her plan is not only excellent but with her past experience to guide her, can avoid the pitfalls that tripped her up last time.

Likeability – A lot of people think that the Republicans will hate Hilary and do anything they can to obstruct her progress once she gets in office. A nice wake up call by a columnist at the NYTimes pointed out it doesn’t matter which dem gets into the White House. The Republicans will hate them and do anything they can to obstruct any progress and bad mouth the President at every opportunity. Bill Clinton ran on a platform of bipartisanship, invited Republicans to dinner and meetings and got kicked in the face for his trouble.

What? You think Rush Limbaugh and Hannity are going to treat Obama fairly if he gets the nomination? You think they will treat him with any more respect than they do anyone? Don’t kid yourself.

Getting things accomplished – This country needs a lot of repairs. Flowery speech isn’t going to get it done. Reaching across the aisle and getting your hand slapped away isn’t going to do it either. Hilary’s been there. She knows what to expect and has already seen the Republican playbook and learned from it. She has international recognition and knows many of the leaders of other countries personally.

Like Obama, I want change.

I just don’t think Obama can deliver it and I think Hilary can.

And, I don’t want change at the expense of ignoring the last 7 years.