Comments on: Mothers of Intention — Obama? Not for this Mama

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:31:00 +0000

Obama has more experience than Abraham Lincoln or FDR had when they were elected president.

Barack has spent 3 years as a U.S. Senator, Abraham Lincoln was a U.S. Senator for 2 years before being elected president.

Both Lincoln and Obama have 10 years experience when you add in the years they spent in the Illinois Legislature.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt served as State Senator from New York for 2 years and Governor of New York for 4 years prior to being elected President.

Putting aside the non-issue of experience (since there is no correlation between experience and being an effective President), the fact is that people are tired of the old school politics of polarization that Hillary represents.

I'll take Barack's - Yes we can...vs. Hillary's Yes I can (if the vast right wing conspiracy doesn't mess things up for me again) any day.

By: Gunfighter

Gunfighter — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:39:00 +0000

Exactly what experience do you think that Hillary has that Obama doesn’t. Kristen.

Please tell me, with specificity.

By: Jaelithe

Jaelithe — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:22:00 +0000

We could always nominate Kristen for president.

By: Wisconsin Mommy

Wisconsin Mommy — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:44:00 +0000

What does it say about our country that out of all the people we have here, these three are the best we can come up with?

I have to agree with Queen of the Mayhem.

By: sweetbeans

sweetbeans — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:47:00 +0000

I like and respect both candidates. I am wary of Obama’s promises to bring people together, change the tone, reach across party lines, etc., because I’ve heard that before. I wish he could detail exactly how he is going to do that. I don’t mean specific policies because I know he has very solid plans on what he wants to achieve, but how, exactly, is he going to “change the tone?” Wasn’t W going to do that, too?

By: ChefSara

ChefSara — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:32:00 +0000

This is something I have been thinking about quite a bit recently. When this campaign started, I was a Hillary fan. I big one. By the time it got to Super Tuesday, I was completely undecided. I thought both were super candidates, but a tentatively cast my vote for Obama based on electability…it seemed all else was equal, and I had to make a decision some how. Since then, I have become more turned off by Hillary. Yes she’s intelligent, and competent. She probably would make a great president, when looking just at the issues and policies. But, I feel like I can say the same thing about Obama. And Hillary’s increasingly negative (and in my mind sneaky and underhanded) campaign tactics have proven to me that she is less of a change than she claims to be. She is politics as usual. And it makes me not trust her…not trust that she cares about the country, only her own ambition. Obama on the other hand, seems like a breath of fresh air. And I think the ability to inspire people to work with you (or in the case of young voters, to get off their duffs and actually vote) is a HUGE asset to any leader, especially a president. When faced with two equally competent, intelligent, (I believe) experienced candidates, I’m going to vote for the one who inspires me and can get me to believe in this country again. And for me, it’s not Hillary.

By: Kyran

Kyran — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:06:00 +0000

I am Obama’s girl. But I want Hillary to stay in, precisely because I want people to be thinking hard about the issues you raise here. This is an excellent post, and I will probably forward it to a bunch of people today, starting with my husband!

And by the way? If the two were to share a ticket, I would be instantaneously raptured.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:01:00 +0000

An interesting article:

I refuse to buy into the Obama hype.

By: Jaelithe

Jaelithe — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:41:00 +0000

P.S. Lara, if your friends attack you personally for supporting Hillary, they are not being very good friends. It’s depressing that this campaign has gotten so contentious that people are afraid to speak their thoughts aloud to fellow Democrats.

By: Jaelithe

Jaelithe — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:37:00 +0000

You made some good points. However, I do want to point out that black men don't actually make more money than white women-- black men make about 75 cents on the dollar to what white men make; white women also make about 75 cents on the dollar compared to white men. And, as I pointed out to you before, there are 17 women Senators right now and only one black senator, so I think that implies that white (and hispanic) women are actually more likely to be elected to office than black men.

This is not to say that I don't think that sexism has been a huge and terrible factor in this election-- it most certainly has. But I don't think this has been as much of a cakewalk for Obama as some people imply.

I am amused by the fact that the media portrays Barack Obama as a sort of an empty dreamer these days. People in the Illinois State Legislature used to make fun of him back in the day because they thought he was too much of a policy wonk. What with his Harvard Law degree, those Constitutional Law classes he was teaching, those 800 bills he authored, and all.

I agree that Hillary has a lot of good experience. But I really dislike the negative tone her campaign has taken recently. It feels like more of the same old, same old. And I'm SICK of the same old political game.

One of my biggest issues with the Bush administration is that they lie, constantly and unabashedly, about just about everything of importance. And then they tear down anyone who tries to point out their lies with vicious attacks. People who didn't believe in preemptive war weren't patriots. People who didn't think there were WMDs were in league with the terrorists. People who want to stop the government from spying on us are really doing nothing but greedy political posturing, and their foolish antics will get us all killed. Etc., etc., ad nauseum.

Maybe Obama really isn't different from the rest. I can't know for sure since I don't know him personally. But, at least he is out there SAYING that trying to manipulate voters using fear is wrong. And I've waited so long to hear someone in a position of power say that out loud.