It’s been a while, and since she scored a rather big win in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, I think Hillary deserves some props on here today.
She also collected ten million dollars in the twenty-four hours following the PA primary, which I think is pretty impressive.
Now, let me start by saying, I am not a huge fan of going negative in politics. I don’t like attack ads, and I have enough cynicism of my own. I really don’t need to get it from politicians. I do NOT like some of the things that Hillary has been doing. However, I also happen to be rather aware of the fact that Hillary is not the only one going negative. During the Ohio primary, Obama’s campaign sent out some seriously negative literature about Hillary. One of these pieces of hate mail… er, propaganda… er, informative copy, included a quote by Hillary about Nafta that weren’t actually her words. This mistake was admitted, but the mailings weren’t stopped. What I am saying here is, Obama is using negative campaigning too. Since his message is all about hope and change, though, he is forced to keep it more on the down low.
Now to the point.
I have questions for Obama supporters, because I have a real curiosity. This is not meant to be anything other than information gathering, so let’s not be getting any panties or boxers in a wad, whatever the case shall be. I was going to ask them all at once, then I realized how many there were, so now I’m going to ask one at a time in hopes of actually getting responses. This will be my way of giving Obama a share of blog space.
Question #1
Do you honestly believe that, if Obama gets into office, there will be real, fundamental change in Washington and politics in general?
April 24th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Do you honestly believe that, if Clinton gets into office, there will be real, fundamental change in Washington and politics in general?
sorry, but really. i think for any fundamental change to happen we have to have a unified party, which will probably never happen. i don’t think any politican, Rep. or Dem., will make fundamental changes until the map is completely blue or red and congress is united. until that happens we can’t get past the lobbistes and special interest groups, etc.
i know that totally doesn’t answer your question and it’s kinda pessimistic, but life doesn’t really have any meaning for me after Carly Smithson was voted off american idol last night.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Riley, thanks for the question and providing the opportunity to respond.
The quick answer to your question is, yes, I do think Barack Obama will bring real, fundamental change to Washington and politics in general.
For reference, I am a 35 year-old white male living in the midwest. I would say that I follow Washington closely. I don’t watch CSPAN, but I do pay attention. For the better part of my voting life, Washington has been a place of “Republican vs. Democrats,” “us vs. them,” and (my favorite) “Either you’re with us or against us.” Elections have been an exercise in divide and conquer. Split people on race or social issues, win 51% and do what you want. It is my opinion that people do not normally follow politics because there’s never any good news. Turn on any “rountable discussion” on cable news and you’ll see a Republican and a Democrat yell at each other for eight minutes and never solve a problem. Speaking personally, I have changed the channel many times because I just do not want to hear it. I know I’m not alone.
That brings me to Barack Obama. I am drawn to him not only because of his positive message, but because that message involves all of us as Americans. He says that he can’t do this without us, working together, to solve these problems. Understand, I am not so naive to think that he’s going to fix everything. He still has to work with Congress, and they have their interests. But I do believe that he can sit everybody down and say “we all want health care reform, yes? Let’s solve this together.” In that sense, he can bring change to Washington. More important than that, he challenges people to get involved. For example, he says he can fix health care, but we still need to do our part, turn off the tv and the video games and exercise. In essence, loose some weight and maybe we’ll save some health care costs. I like that challenge. The other two candidates don’t do that. They tell me what they think I want to hear, as long as they get my vote. For me, it’s about trust, and I trust Barack Obama.
You mentioned the negativity, and I’m with you, I don’t like it either, as evidenced by my previous mention of disdain for partisan roundtables. That said, it is my impression that Obama had to go negative in some instances in defense of himself. An example of avoidance of negativity would be at the last debate when the issue of Bosnia came up. In fairness, Bosnia, Rev. Wright, and lapel pins don’t put gas in my car and food on my table and I really don’t care either way. That said, the issue came up and Obama let it go. The ball was on the tee and he didn’t drive it. Many in the MSM are begining to say the Obama is wimpy because he gave a pass on this. He could have drilled her with it, but didn’t and it’s because that he’s trying to stay positive and play this above board. I know, he’s not a complete angel, but, in my estimation, he’s defended much more than he’s started.
Again, I want to stress that I am some kool-aid drinking automaton blindly following a leader. I have thought long and hard about this and I believe him to be an honest man with nothing but the best intentions for this country. I’m willing to try somebody new.
That’s beside the point. The question was if I believed that he could bring about real change and my answer is yes.
Thanks again, Riley. Keep up the good work.
Andy Mason
April 24th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Glad to see I could pull you back out of hiding, The Hotness, since you haven’t been commenting on my stories lately
Welcome to the board Andy. Interesting commentary. And serious bonus points for using the word ‘automaton’.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:07 am
yeah sorry. it’s not because i haven’t been keeping up with you, and most definitely not because don’t still think your awesome. just been super busy.