Hillary Clinton is not my favorite Democratic presidential candidate. If I could choose, I would pick John Edwards for his bold, progressive agenda. It has nevertheless become clear that the Democratic primary race is a contest between Clinton and Barack Obama, with each picking up victories in crucial caucuses and primaries. Given a choice between these two, Democratic primary voters should choose Clinton. Unlike Obama, she has spent her career demonstrating that she can and will bring about substantive change for the American people. Also unlike Obama, she refuses to dream the impossible dream that, in politics, everyone can get along.
Although media talking points have cast Clinton as the Democrats' business-as-usual, inside the beltway candidate, the truth is that her record demonstrates her willingness and ability to work hard for change. Clinton saw the problems with our health care system as first lady, well before health care became the hot button issue it is today, and she worked to fix those problems. Although the proposal that she put forward for universal coverage ultimately failed, Clinton did succeed in helping to provide millions of children with coverage under the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Her Senate record has been even more impressive, particularly on issues of homeland security and defense. Her service on the Senate Armed Services Committee and her willingness to combine both internationalist and realist approaches to foreign policy indicate that she is a candidate who can jump the Democrats' post-9/11 national security hurdle. Clinton will work with the international community, yet she inspires confidence that she will always act in the best interest of the United States. This is exactly the message that Democrats need to be sending as they move into 2008.
By contrast, Barack Obama is not half as politically appealing. Yes, he has achieved rock star status; and yes, his ability to get out the vote ' particularly the youth vote ' has been impressive. Still, we should be electing a president based on his or her ability to lead and not on the number of votes that he or she can win. The truth is that Obama has done little to demonstrate that he is ready to be the president of the United States. He has no foreign policy experience, no national security experience, no executive experience and, indeed, very little political experience period. His idealistic obsession with bipartisanship and his na+
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Nathan Nelson
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