Letters to the Editor
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AKA Smith
"I don't usually snark at people unless they offer irrational stuff up as meaningful. I like logic"
Snark away darlin. But I hope that you can back up your snarking with some facts and logic of your own.
I read your longer post, and it makes me wonder if you really know any facts to support your candidate.
So, a couple questions for you.
1) Why do you think Hillary is better than John McCain on foreign policy? Let's put aside that Hillary has aligned herself with the Republicans on many foreign policy votes (including of course, Iraq).
Sure she NOW supposedly wants to get us out of Iraq - that's a fairly recent (& convenient) position for her - in case you weren't aware. As late as March 2007, she wanted to keep troops in Iraq for at least 10 more years. I guess it comes to whether you trust her to keep her campaign promises. There are niggling doubts in my mind about that ... hmmm... let's see, she can't even come out a make a statement about making WATERBOARDING illegal? (which both Obama and McCain have done). She kind of stuck in the cold war in terms of her proposals for Cuba. She wouldn't meet with other world leaders unless conditions were met. To me she sounds a hell of a lot like a republican. Now I ask myself, based on her inability to admit a mistake in Iraq and her affinity for questionable torture practices, does she have the right vision on foreign policy? Does she have any vision, or will she just take positions in order to guarantee her continued coronation?
And do I want to vote for her (if she got the nomination) against someone who appears a lot more honest and at least shows decent principles about torture.
2) This is getting long and I have to go, but you state that her healthcare plan is "just the best" ... hmmm ... is there a logic there?
Do you know that the major difference between her plan and Obama's is her focus on mandates ... which are an idea first put in place by ROMNEY in Massachusetts? Again, a rather republican seeming concept (or at least they've flocked to it, such as Arnie in my state).
Yes, SOME people will say that this is the only way to keep costs down. HMMM ... that's a pretty free market argument. How about REGULATING or better yet, getting rid of the damn insurance companies who are the major part of the problem to start with. So, basically - I personally agree with Obama that we need to be careful about mandates. Read about the massachusetts program and see how people hate it. I agree that something needs to be done on the topic, but this free market crap for health care is not where I'd rush to first, and Hillary sure seems to be lapping it up - as was Edwards.
I could go on, but I'll leave you with one final thought - do you know anything about either of these candidates advisors ... Hillary's are known as the "wall street crowd" - gotta love that. She has also taken a ton of money from the insurance companies ... who she would certainly be subsidizing with her mandates to buy private insurance.
So, party on with Hillary .... I'll take some facts with my logic please ...
and I believe there would be very little difference between a Clinton and McCain administration, and I'd prefer my administration honest & torture free, thanks.
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@ Anonymous
I am not going to address your points one-by-one. You actually make some quite valid points. Therefore, I will just address a few of them.
1. It would be sad to lose you.
2. I remain curious as to why HIllary, a Senator usually known for her diligence, did not bother to read the pertinent N.I.E. before casting her vote.
I have a theory on the N.I.E. She said that she was "briefed" instead of actually reading. Who do you think would know enough, including what was in the N.I.E. to actually brief her? Only one person, and that person as a former sitting president is entitled to the Presidential Daily Brief by courtesy. I think she felt she had enough information.
For the record, I opposed the war without clear proof that there were WMD and that Saddam had the capability and wherewithal to use them against us. I wanted to give the weapons inspectors more time to do their work.
I think it is undeniable from my perspective that Senator Clinton should have used better judgment, but even Barack Obama has conceded that he does not know how he would have voted had he been in the Senate and privy to the intelligence.
3. But I think that in South Carolina, there was a strategy to turn Obama into the "black candidate" with the calculation that if the race is cast as Black v. White, the white candidate (Hillary) would win because whites are more numerous. Is this illegal? Of course not. Is it ethical? You decide.
You are referring to Bill Clinton's comments on Jesse Jackson, I think. I think the real question is how deliberate was it. Someone actually linked me to the transcript of that interview. What I noticed was not what I expected to notice. I haven't actually heard Bill Clinton speak in awile. (I don't watch television anymore.) What shocked me was how rambling and how repetitive he was. Another letter writer at Salon, MICKI, who apparently has medical experience has written about Bill Clinton not being the man intellectually that he previously was since his heart attack. I am very much a word person. As a writer of fiction, I pay lots of attention to how real people speak. I have to agree, Bill Clinton, when it comes to oral expression is not the man he used to be. Was he being deliberate or is he just hard to control? It is difficult to say. In any case, he didn't help his wife. I believe he hurt her. You do notice that he has been nearly disappeared.
A good idea, I believe. It's her campaign. Not his.
4. When you say that you have yet to see anyone lay a glove on Hillary herself over dirty tactics, I can't tell if you're being disingenuous.
Nooo. That isn't my way. See my previous defintion in another thread of "dirty."
6. I actually think that Clinton is the safer choice in the general when it comes to being swiftboated. What are they going to say? That she killed Vince Foster. On the other hand, with Obama, they will have fresh blood.