Why I support Obama

I support Obama because I’m objective.  I have no alliances to any of the three main contenders for the Democrat’s Presidential nomination.  I have also tried to refrain my judgements from emotions.  Being an African-American my emotions could have easily led my judgements to support Barack Obama due to the excitement of the possibility of having the first Black President.  However, my same African-American emotions could have easily led me to revert to the comfort of the Clintons and thus put my support behind Hillary.  Essentially, optimism and cynicism, two emotions I have in abundance, would have guided me in opposite directions which equates to running in circles/nowhere.   I had to be objective to make a decision.

 

After hearing and reading most of the candidates positions on healthcare, education, foreign policy, etc. I could not find a large enough difference in their stances to make me pick one.  Hillary, Barack, and John seemed to have the most leadership qualities, so I started assessing their strengths concerning the election.Barack had far more strengths than the others.  His faults were fixable.  They all centered on perceived inexperience, and the fear of breaking the mold.  Fear can be overcome and experience gained, but both of these center on questions of judgement.  People feel you have good judgement once you start making correct decisions.  For Barack to have already campaigned for a year and now be in a position to overtake the “unstoppable” Hillary, I feel he has already displayed good judgement.  For him to fix his faults he should proceed in a similar manner to his present.  He is not perfect, but he can fix his faults.  For more on Obama check Andrew Sullivan’s Blog or my paper A Better Way Chapter 4.

 

The main fault for Hillary Clinton is that most of her experience and support derives from Bill Clinton.  This is a horrible weakness.  Any contradictory thing Bill says will be used against her.  Once the debate shifts to foreign policy, and it will, this situation will prove a disaster.  It will make her look weaker than her Republican rival in arguably the most pertinent issue of the campaign.  Having Bill Clinton support her is poor implementation of the Bill Clinton resource.  He should be to the benefit of the entire party and not just Hillary where he will inevitably become a detriment to her and potentially the whole Democratic Party.  This main flaw is only fixed if Hillary is not the nominee, so therefore I don’t support her for President.  I talk more about this in my paper A Better Way Chapter 3.

 

As for John Edwards my previous post “John Edwards sounds like a Vice President” should sum it up.  If questions still remain I would refer you to A Better Way Chapter 5.

 

The Iowa Caucus is less than a week away, so it should behoove all interested citizens to catch up on political ideas and opinions asap.  Even if you don’t live in Iowa you should put the effort for.  Acquiring knowledge is important, and spreading it is even more.  My paper is just one apparatus.  Overall, I support Obama because he provides the greatest possibility for success in 2008.