Letters to the Editor
weeping for brunnhilde
Published Letters: 1197 Editor's Choice: 3
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@ Tim Baird
[Read the article: Rev. Jeremiah Wright isn't the problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Hillary Clinton speaks eloquently but she also says something. Her senate experience won over even her harshest repub critics. She has the skills, dedication, and work ethic to be president - Obama needs to spend a few years actually doing something and then maybe he'll be qualified to run for president."
A legitimate point, and the crux of the issue.
I despise Hillary Clinton but I recognize that she is qualified to be president. She will not be incompetent.
Yet I also think the skills you adduce are less of an argument for the presidency than they are for a more ancillary role. A cabinet post, e.g.
To me (to me) a president should have vision, wisdom, humility, integrity, etc. A president should be a leader, meaning someone who can lead.
In my judgement, Hillary Clinton has little in the way of what I would recognize as leadership ability.
This is an honest disagreement, I think.
How you answer the question of who's more qualified depends on the criteria by which you decide.
That often gets lost, as if there is one set of agreed-upon, objective criteria.
I believe Obama is qualified to be president, based largely on observing his campaign. I wasn't particularly high on him to begin with, but the campaign has impressed me in many ways, and I've been especially impressed by his learning curve.
This man has advanced light years from where he was a year ago. He is a man if immense gifts, would you agree?
I'm not shilling for him, by any means, just trying to note that there are, in fact, valid reasons to vote for both candidates. The one you choose depends on the criteria you use.
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@ jack smith
[Read the article: The GOP attack plan for Hillary Clinton]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Evidence?
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@ AJ
[Read the article: The GOP attack plan for Hillary Clinton]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]May I ask, out of curiosity, what you mean by "inside?"
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@ Valkyrie
[Read the article: Rev. Jeremiah Wright isn't the problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's enough to make you want to cash in your chips, isn't it?
That's what this is all about. Despair, hope, and cynicism.
I incline towards despair. Having watched this country re-elect George Bush despite a mountain of evidence supporting not just not voting for him, but impeaching him, I despaired.
I felt (and often continue to feel) like that king in Lord of the Rings, paralyzed by the enormity of it all: "What can men do against such hate?"
And then comes Obama, and, despite my lukewarm initial reaction to him (he seemed decent enough, but nowhere near radical or progressive enough for me), I warmed up to him and started to appreciate just how radical he really is, not in terms of policy, but in terms of ethos. Not the perfect candidate, but one I could vote for in good conscience, albeit with sobriety and reservations (he is a politician, after all, and contrary to the talking points, I don't consider him a savior). Anyway, I was feeling optimistic.
Not just for Obama, but that there was a wave of Democrats that seemed sure to guarantee victory in the fall, whichever candidate was chosen.
Then comes Clinton at the eleventh hour to poison the well with cynicism.
Suddenly, it's no longer about "two terrific candidates" or "one thing's for sure, the Democratic party is poised to win big, to judge from turnout."
It's cynical garbage about fear and race and patriotism.
More Republican light from the Clintons.
The good old Clintons.
Bill Clinton was actually the thing that made me renounce the Democratic party in the first place.
I was indignant that they could sell out liberalism so blithely.
I don't know what the point of all this is, other than to say that I know, or feel I do, something of what you're feeling.
Ah, yes, the point, finally, is that it does no one any good to give into despair.
As I've heard, that's the Republicans' strategy, right?
So poison the well with negativity that people are disgusted and stay home, which benefits the Republican party.
Clinton's well on her way (so it seems to me) from achieving the same result.
I, for one, will never vote for her. I came into the election believing I'd not vote for her, but then she lulled me into complacency for a little while, as her greatest crime was she was running a campaign of entitlement, but she was benign enough that I actually considered maybe I could vote for her afterall.
No more.
I can not, in good conscience, endorse these people.
I just find their way of doing business reprehensible.
But I won't despair, and nor should you.
We'll all come through this somehow.
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@ AJ, Fester
[Read the article: The GOP attack plan for Hillary Clinton]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cheers!
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@ Fester
[Read the article: The GOP attack plan for Hillary Clinton]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And to you, baldheaded, vaguely unsettling, yet ultimately benign freakshow!
:)
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Thank you, Justin!
[Read the article: Rev. Jeremiah Wright isn't the problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For the kind words and for the Terence!
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@ confetti
[Read the article: The GOP attack plan for Hillary Clinton]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"He is just not in a box. (McCain actually is.) I had to do what I knew needed doing a long time ago -- realize that "left" and "right", "liberal" and "conservative" have very little coherent meaning any more. They are lazy slogans that usually appeal to fairly reflexive responses."
Hear, hear!
I was lukewarm on Obama for a long time as well, not considering him leftwing enough. Eventually I was won over for a variety of reasons, among them precisely this point: he's beyond boxes!
So cogent a point.
He's not left or right or liberal or conservative, but I'll tell you what he is: he's a leader, he has a fierce learning curve, he has vision.
The real question, as someone around here said once, is whether this country deserves him.
As to Clinton, yes, I loathe her too. Couldn't in good conscience vote for her.