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• Friday, February 29, 2008 08:02 AM

  Apology Accepted

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  About those about faces

  Why do I have this strange feeling that so many of those who post on this and other sites, claiming to have been former Clinton supporters who have Seen The Light and Been Saved By Obama, are nothing of the sort? Sorry if I'm insulting anyone,

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  Apology accepted, because this post is insulting. I hadn't even seen more than an Obama soundbite until the recent debate, instead making my choice based in reading stuff in the MSM, both candidates' sites, and places like this. My reasons are based both on my convictions and on calculation, and really have next to nothing to do with being seduced.

  Here's why I switched:

  1) Hillary supported the effort to go to war. This is the single biggest policy decision she's ever made, and she got it wrong, apparently, because she made the wrong political calculation. A real leader [Not a manager, which isn't the same thing] would have gotten it right. Plenty of us got it right when we protested in the streets and with letters. Should we expect our politicians to be held to a lesser standard on THE most important issue?

  2) Obama attracts more independents. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that this support isn't rovian, calculated, or insincere. Not everyone is a political junky who reads the comment sections. The tendency to "game the system" is not actually all that common among most voters; even if it exists, the impact is insignificant. The simplest explanation is that he's a more attractive candidate. If we want to win in November, we go with the most attractive candidate.

  3) She's run a pathetic campaign, and the endlessly changing themes and memes "inexperience vs. experience," "fear," "safety" "ready on day one", "shame on you" "change you can xerox" etc. etc. etc. betray a poor ability to lead.

  As I've posted before, I do like and respect Clinton. She's MUCH better than McCain, clearly, and would normally get my vote. But Obama's positions are significantly better to me, and he would be a more effective president based on his charisma. "Being Saved" has absolutely nothing to do with it.

  ""but I've yet to see a post claiming the opposite - and I've been doing way more than my share of reader comment sampling this past month. This just seems very odd.""

  There's a simple explanation for this: nobody is switching from Obama to Hillary. It only seems odd if you ignore the fact that Obama is a stronger candidate.

  —Kingbreaker Read Kingbreaker's other letters
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