So, it’s a veritable showdown between Hillary and Barack. Oh, and there’s some stuff going on on the Republican side too, but, seriously, who cares? Okay, that’s not true. If McCain gets the Republican nod, he might just be able to pull the Republican party out of the stone ages, but not entirely. He’s a helluva lot better than the scary people he’s running against though. So, go McCain for the Republicans! And then… I can’t wait to see you get your ass beat in the general election.

Now, onto the Democrats. Wow, this is pretty cool. I have had the opportunity to experience a lot of things in my lifetime. I’ve been present during some amazing events. It’s important to be a part of history, and something truly history-making is happening in this country right now. If you’ve been keeping your head down, if politics are of no interest to you, I implore you to look up. This is an amazing time.

Whatever happens is set to bring about great change in Washington, and I am not using that word as a key word or a catchphrase, as has been so often done during this campaign. No matter who has uttered it more often, both Democratic candidates will offer it. It is not a decisive word. As for the Republicans, even if John McCain gets the nod, let me just say, change is not exactly an important term in the Republican handbook. If you happen to be a Republican, I’m sorry. That you are a Republican… not that I said it.

As for the Democratic hopefuls, Obama is generating a lot of excitement, which is great.  I am totally for involving people in the political process. Now, let me tell you why I am keeping my fingers crossed that people go into the polls today and vote for Hillary.

1. Obama speaks in generalities and ideals.

His delivery is electrifying. His optimism is inspiring. His grasp of what he is actually proposing is limited. He cannot adequately explain how he plans to get from point A to point B. He says what he is going to do. He has a more difficult time saying how.

There is no time for a learning curve, not after the destruction left behind by this administration.

2. Those idealistic notions are not realistic notions.

Bill Clinton got a lot of flack for calling Obama’s campaign a fairy tale. It was turned into an insult. It was turned into a race issue. I don’t believe it was either of those things. I believe that the point that was trying to be made was that Obama does not have enough experience to  realize that what he is saying is going to be a lot more difficult to actually make come to pass than he thinks.

He’s going to bring the parties together? Great. How? And don’t say, “because I was able to do it in Illinois”. In Illinois, no matter what side of the aisle they were on, the people in charge cared about the people in Illinois. If you think a Republican senator from the northeast cares about the people of rural Louisiana, you are going to be sadly disappointed.

3. The idea of getting people involved in their government is wonderful, but it won’t last.

People in this country notoriously go about their business without much thought to the government’s part in their lives. When the excitement of this historic election dies down, people will, sadly, return to the way they are currently living those lives. If it does renew interest in helping out with the country, it will not last. It is sad, but it is true. 1968 was a year of some of the greatest political and social change this country has ever seen. Forty years later… complacency.

Young people flock to Obama, have come out of the folds to support him. That’s great, except that it is based on a catchphrase mentality.  It’s celebrity over substance. A “Yes we can!” rings in their ears, and in depth talk about facts and policy are tuned out. They don’t want to know how hard it is to do, just that it can be done. I want to believe that it can be done too, but, when you set out to do something, you’d better damn well know how you are going to go about doing it.

4. Hillary’s Iraq vote.

She is taking a serious amount of grief for her initial Iraq vote on the campaign trail. It seems to be the Achilles heel into which Obama is consistently piercing. It seems to draw more blood every time. The day after this last debate, I read everywhere that Obama was stronger on the war.

Just because he claimed to be doesn’t make it true, and here is why that is an unfair assessment.

It is easy to say, now, that Clinton’s vote to send inspectors into Iraq was the wrong decision. It is easy to say this now, because what happened after, the rush to war, the outrageous military spending, were carried out based on that initial vote. We can see the mistake clearly everyday on the news.

What we cannot see is what might have happened if that vote had failed. I am not saying that something would have happened, but let’s just cover one scenario -

Let’s say Hillary voted ‘no’ on the bill to send inspectors into Iraq along with Barack. Let’s say it failed and no inspectors were sent. Let’s say the U.S. was bombed three months later by Iraq. It’s easy to see Hillary’s mistake, because it turned out Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. What if they had?

More importantly, if Bush had not been commander-in-chief, there would have been no war. A commander-in-chief that does not have an itchy trigger finger and a need to restore Daddy’s honor would not have sent innocent people into a useless war when the inspection turned up naught.

5. The Economy & Healthcare.

If the economy is everyone’s main concern, there should be no debate here. The problem is that many young people who are now of voting age have no recollection of the economic prosperity of the Clinton years. So, without sounding ancient here, let me just say that I could get gas for less than a dollar a gallon every time I got gas. In some places, I could get it for under nintety cents. This was not back in the day, people, this was less than ten years ago. And, despite what we are led to believe, the price of oil has not skyrocketed. The value of the dollar has plummeted.

Fast food restaurants were paying $8.50 an hour, because the economy was so good that high school kids could get $10 an hour office jobs. Today, people are scrambling for any job they can find.

There is pretty much one fix for this extreme economic problem. A Clinton.

On healthcare, I understand that a lot of people don’t want to be told what to do, that they must have healthcare. But universal healthcare isn’t a punishment, it’s a privilege, a privilege that is working very well in many other countries. As for concerns that not everyone can afford it, this is not like healthcare now. This is not two hundred dollars from every paycheck. Social security is a huge program that exists on a few dollars a month from every working citizen. It’s called compound interest people. It works wonders.

And for those healthy people who don’t want to have to pay in to a system that they will not be using, consider yourselves very lucky, and, let me tell you, I was very glad that I had health insurance during this past year and a half. No one expects to suddenly be getting regular MRIs because there is an unidentifiable spot on his or her brain. I have racked up over twenty grand in hospital costs in a matter of months. I would have been seriously screwed without insurance. Yes, you are healthy. Good. But it’s insurance. Like all insurance, it’s meant for ‘just in case,’ and you hope like hell you never have to use it.

Obama’s message of change is hopeful, which I like, but in saying that Hillary is a part of the old Washington system, it lumps her in with the current administration. It’s unfair and inaccurate.

What exactly is it we need change from? This current administration? Most definitely. But do we really need change from Washington entire? From the way things are done? Yes. From the partisan politics? Yes. But from what Hillary represents of Washington’s past? Do we need such drastic change from that?

The Clinton years were a time of human rights, economic prosperity, and relief for middle and lower-class families around the country. Some people may feel that there was “moral decay” marring the Clinton years, but, in the areas that should truly matter politically, it’s a return to the past that I welcome.