Who Would Jesus Vote For? Barack Obama!
This is a hard post for me to write because from the very beginning I was a strong Clinton supporter. I proudly defended her to all my friends, readers, and family. I made the arguments that her experience, positions, and long history of fighting for health care, working class families, and womens rights make her an excellent Democratic nominee. As recently as last month I felt compelled to write about how she should not drop out despite the media’s incessant calls for it.
Today I am not backing off of those positions, nor am I ever going to suggest that any candidate should bow to pressure to drop out of the race. Hillary has earned the right to campaign and pursue the presidency all the way to the convention if that is her choice. If the blogs or media or whoever has a problem with that so what.
However I have been gradually convinced that despite Hillary’s many many positives Obama is the better candidate to receive the parties nomination. This decision isn’t based upon policies or experience as I still feel that Clinton wins in those categories. Instead its based upon something much simpler but vastly more important. Character.
I’m not necessarily talking about personal character as I still strongly feel that both candidates have impeccably strong characters. Instead I am referring to the character of their campaigns and how they affect the progressive movement. I have always felt that no movement can ever be about one single battle and the decision has to be not who can be elected but who can help build the progressive movement. Obama’s campaign is the clear winner by that criteria.
It also does not help that in order to sell the myth of “electability” Clinton consistently works to ostracize parts of the Democratic party. 4 or 8 years in the White House will not be enough time to fix the damage caused by George Bush. So to achieve the long term comprehensive success the progressive movement needs to fix this nation we need to bring liberals, progressives, and moderates together. Sorry Hillary but statements like this are exactly what we don’t need.
“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article “that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me”
(h/t Bloggernista)
So today, for these reasons and many others, I am formally announcing my support for Barack Obama. At this point we will be moving on and focusing on the general election against serial flip-flopper John McCain. I wish Hillary Clinton the best of luck and will always support her as she will no doubt continue fighting for the progressive ideals she has devoted her life to.
William ~ WWJV4.com
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Comments
Thanks for the great post. I shared my recent thoughts on my shift toward Hillary last week on my blog. I still very much support Obama, but am leaning slightly toward Hillary now (note: slightly).
You say: “4 or 8 years in the White House will not be enough time to fix the damage caused by George Bush. So to achieve the long term comprehensive success the progressive movement needs to fix this nation we need to bring liberals, progressives, and moderates together.”
I could not agree more. This is the exact reason why I’ve been excited about Obama since Super Tuesday. I do think he has the ability to inspire a generation of new progressive citizens, while uniting the various factions of the current Democratic party (though that’s getting tougher the longer this primary draws out). Of course, Obama will have to deliver on his progressive promises, which will be no small feat. Especially given all the obstacles that gmknobl outlined in the previous comment.
The one thing I would love to see is the unification of the progressive/establishment factions. Because that too is a long term problem facing the Dem Party. It’s not a new problem, but it needs to be addressed if the party plans on winning anything beyond 2008. I hope Obama offers the VP nod to Clinton or one of her surrogates (e.g., Evan Bayh, Wesley Clark, etc.).
Anyway, again, thanks for your post. Big fan of the blog and I appreciate your perspective on things.
I would like to thank both of you for your comments. I don’t much time now but I wanted to make sure and thank you both.
[...] though I have decided to support Obama I am still very happy to see that Clinton is not only competitive in blue collar states, but [...]
Sorry you had to do that.
I just hope that with oil climbing ever higher, strong evidence that our own inflation rate is 6-9% in reality, not just 2.x% as the shrub government would have us believe, and another war breaking out in the Middle East (Lebanon) we aren’t forced into a nasty depression. Oil could hit $5/gal and real inflation could hit over 10%. This is the time our country needs radically different leadership and well-reasoned but immediate action. I just hope Obama can provide this. In fact, I’m praying for it.