Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Why I don't want Clinton as the nominee

I was lifting weights and talking politics with a good friend and fellow political junky last week and he asked me who I want the Democrats to nominate. I'm still unsure as I believe any of the major candidates have a very viable path towards the nomination, and there is something about Edwards, Clinton and Obama that raises some serious doubts. I have tactical questions about Edwards, knowledge that people like me and my normal allies are the people who Clinton will screw when faced with a tough decision as well as a distrust of her foreign policy judgement, and severe questions about Obama's decision making process as he consistently decides to not decide and the decry 'old politics'. However I'm going to steal Publius's work at Obsidian Wings on why I won't vote for Clinton in the primaries:
the Clintons are so scarred that they’re scared. Nothing bold will come from a second Clinton administration – and there’s a non-negligible chance that she’ll be pressured into doing something hawkishly stupid on the foreign policy front. Whether the flaw is action or inaction, the reason will be the same – they are intensely, neurotically afraid of appearing too liberal. The scars cut too deep.

As Sullivan and others have noted, the Clintons came of age in a different time. In their formative political years in Arkansas, they internalized the lesson of distancing themselves from the dirty hippies. And it worked for them – both in Arkansas and in 1992. And that’s all fine – politicians have to play the cards that historical context deals them. More power to them.

But 2008 is a new world....
I'm not a dirty f*cking hippy --- too damn young for starters, but I also never liked weed, and I have no rhythm or tone so I can't play the guitar --- but the DFH are my allies on a regular basis. And as John Cole noted earlier this week "you don’t diss the insight of the smelly dirty hippies. Once again, they were right.

Hillary Clinton can win the White House, but she won't be willing to attempt to get that much done besides immediate damage control. I don't think we can afford that opportunity cost.

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