I like Hillary more than when this campaign began

ruggerson

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Sun Mar-16-08 08:22 PM
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I like Hillary more than when this campaign began

I'm not much bothered by the incoming flak from either side, whether it be positioning for delegates in Florida, firing someone for intemperate remarks, indignantly asking someone to release their tax returns or denigrating an opponent's foreign policy bona fides.

It's politics. It's not much different than a lot of other elections past, no matter how much whining to the contrary. It's fun to debate the ballgame on message boards, but that's all it really is: a ballgame.

This is the first time that we've had the gender issuse and the race issue to deal with in the same national campaign. No woman or African American man has ever been such a serious contender for our nomination. Given our national culture and the hot button topics of both race and gender, there was bound to be a lot of skirmishing on these issues and resulting finger pointing and indignation.

Some of us believe Clinton has race baited and run a campaign designed to tear down her opponent. Some of us believe Obama has race baited and run a campaign designed to smear his opponent.

In the long run, it doesn't matter. Whatever the true motives of either side's tacticians, both candidates are attempting to make a case to the American public based on their own merits.

There is not much to distinguish the differences in policy between our two contenders. There is not much daylight between them.

There is not much character-wise to differentiate between the two: they are both ambitious, and they are both politicians, meaning at times, they both have a loose relationship with the truth. (and yes, I realize this goes against the Obama supporters narrative that Hillary is a crook and Barack is a resurrection of all that is holy, but I personally think that is so naive and wrongheaded as to be laughable).

So, we have to look at the attitudinal differences between the two. Their style, the way they approach problem solving and the way they would approach the job of President.

Obama, he tells us, is a conciliator. He wants to reach across the aisle, triangulate with the Republicans and come up with compromises in the name of getting things done. His is a message of unity. Reaching out to our Republican counterparts will result in a new way, an era of good feeling and productive bipartisan cooperation.

Clinton's approach is different. She is highly partisan and makes no bones about her feelings about Republicans and what they've done to this country. Hers is a far more confrontational approach, but history tells us that hyperpartisanship is the stuff great Presidents are made of (it is also, conversely some of the stuff of our biggest failures). She is an ideologue and a political animal at the same time, so on the face of it, her message can appear political, cut and fashioned to appeal to the widest swath of focus group approval.

But, the heart of her, the essence of who she is, is her partisanship, her intelligence, and her relentless, dogged determination to pursue this nomination, fighting against preconceived perceptions, fighting against a press predisposed to hate anything Clinton, even at times fighting against being sabotaged by her own husband.

When this process started out, I favored Biden. Hillary seemed to me a very, very bright career politician. When Joe dropped out, and I swung her way, I started paying a lot more attention to how she faces the brutal day to dayness of this campaign.

And that's when I began to be more impressed.

I want a President who will never, ever give up in fighting for progressive ideals. I want a President who will only compromise when absolutely necessary, not one who starts the bargaining process having rhetorically already given away half the ground to the opposition.

Hillary, for me, has the characteristics that make her more likely to be that President.

This is a woman who never gives up. She is tough as nails. The Obama supporters hate that trait in her, I know.

But, I think it's the single essential ingredient giving her a shot at becoming a truly great President.