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February 7th, 2008
12:21 am - not that it matters...
I don't get to vote in it, but if I did, I'd be picking Obama on the Democratic side. If I was forced at gunpoint to pick amongst the Republicans, I'd just scream "shoot me now" - they <i>are</i> all that bad.
Of the remaining candidates, Obama's the only one who got the most important issue of the last 6 years right. The Iraq War. This utter catastrophic nightmarish fuckup is going to keep killing a lot of people for a long time to come. It's totally wrecked any chances of the US being seen as a good actor in international affairs (a role they used to be able to fill). Clinton, well, when the call came to stand up or not - she blinked. Worse yet, I'm getting a sense from her campaign that she's trying to do the run-to-the-centre thing <i>already</i>. Have some fucking principles.
Hilzoy has written up the case for Obama in some detail <a href="http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2008/02/obama-actually.html">here</a>. I'd also add <b>damn</b> the man knows how to speak. Regardless of his actions (and the just-linked piece seems to suggest that he's also managed to get stuff done), it'd be seriously nice to have someone in a position of authority who can actually inspire.
On the other side, the <i>only</i> positive is that the outright fascistic Guiliani is out. Thank fuck for that. Better yet, his campaign was an epic disaster, on the scale that will be discussed for years to come. McCain is a warmongering lunatic. Romney is a slimy say-anything car salesman, and Huckabee - woo boy. What a loony jesus freak.
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Comments:
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| Date: | February 6th, 2008 09:46 pm (UTC) |
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I like and would vote for Obama as well, but the move to the centre thing isn't just a matter of lack of principles; it's also a numeric requirement for anyone running even vaguely leftist principles in an American election. I remember reading that a candidate who ran on a platform that included many of the things I would want the US to have - including, say, gay marriage, reformed health care and education, much more stringent environmental concerns, and of course a working foreign policy which is big on diplomacy and absent on war - simply doesn't have enough people to pull votes from. Even if 100% of those who supported those positions voted, they couldn't win; the numbers simply aren't there.
So we give a pass to a great deal of pandering to the electorate, because there is so clearly a lesser of two evils component to most Australian and US politics. So I like Obama more, but I don't fault Hillary for that particular choice. |
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