Who Would Jesus Vote For?

Yesterday we saw the final votes cast in one of the most amazing and historic primary campaigns in our nations history. I don’t need to go into all the many reasons why this year has been one that our grandchildren will learn about in school. Two of those reasons are painfully obvious just by looking at our top candidates.

Even though Clinton and Obama stayed practically tied in every measurement in the end there is a clear winner. I have truthfully said this whole time that I would fully support any of our top 3 for president and I think that most Democrats feel the same way. So even though I threw my support behind Obama a while back, today is the first day that we can say that Barack Obama is the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Hold on to your pants, now its going to really get interesting.  Watch these two give their speeches last night.  Obama gives a great speech and I think Hillary does as well.  Some may have wanted something different from her but I think her supporters are all happy.  I know I am.

[youtube width="500" height="394"]http://youtube.com/watch?v=dtL-1V3OZ0c[/youtube]

[youtube width="500" height="394"]http://youtube.com/watch?v=T8-Bkbre_7A[/youtube]

William ~ WWJV4.com

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