Barillary Clintama

I hate to say it, but I’m not Hillary Clinton’s biggest fan. While it’s certainly past time to burn the cowboy boots and send in the high heels to the Oval Office, her decision to run rubbed me the wrong way after listening to her deny any presidential aspirations for the past 12 years. Seems to me that she’s spent much of her time in the senate dicking around, teaming up with Joe Lieberman to pass legislation on violent video games (important stuff), and tiptoeing around the Bush Administration and its iron-fisted Luciferian foreign policy. She voted for the invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq. It wasn’t until she announced her candidacy for the Democratic Presidential nomination at the beginning of this year that she began to show some balls, voting against Bush’s 2007 troop surge plan and also the “compromise war funding bill that removed withdrawal deadlines but tied funding to progress benchmarks for the Iraqi government” (wikipedia.) This demonstrates to me that ultimately Hillary Clinton is a follower, not a leader. She consistently weighs the political climate before making a decision about her position. This is a wise move for someone who plans to be a career politician, but in my opinion it’s people like her who are just as responsible as Bush & Co. for getting the US completely mired in the mess that is Iraq. Those no denying that Hillary is one of the most powerful senators in Congress: she has a responsibility, because of her power, to be the first to shake up the paradigm on any given reason if that paradigm is lacking in constitutionality, morality or basic logic (and in the case of the war in Iraq, lacking in ALL THREE of these areas.) I realize that the Iraq War is not the only important political issue and maybe it shouldn’t be the only issue on which to gauge Hillary Clinton’s ability as a leader. But Iraq remains the prevalent issue in the minds of the rest of the world and has proved to be the most difficult issue for american politicians to state their position on. In light of the complicated and rapid development of international issues across the modern world we need a leader who will do their best to make a logical stance (repeat: LOGICAL) as quickly as possible and stick to their guns unless circumstances dictate a necessity to change that position.

While Hillary Clinton supported the war in Iraq during the first couple years of the invasion, Barack Obama “was an early opponent of Bush administration policies on Iraq, when other Democratic leaders supported the legislation that led to the war. Obama was not in the United States Senate, and was therefore unable to vote during the Iraq Resolution of 11 October 2002, authorizing the use of force against Iraq. He also speculated about the sectarian violence in Iraq after the fall of Saddam, and talked about the need for a strategy to stabilize Iraq and hand over power to the Iraqis in an interview in 2002. Speaking before the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in November 2006, he said: "The days of using the war on terror as a political football are over. [...] It is time to give Iraqis their country back, and it is time to refocus America's efforts on the wider struggle yet to be won." In his speech Obama also called for a phased withdrawal of American troops starting in 2007, and an opening of diplomatic dialog with Iraq's neighbors, Syria and Iran” (wikipedia.)

It has to be said that on nearly every other issue than the war in Iraq, Clinton and Obama’s positions were virtually identical (though they both have strove to make it not to appear that way.) It is only in the history of their decision making—their timing and manner of gauging of the political climate—that they show any significant difference. It seems to me that one of these two will get the nomination and the other will go on the ticket as running mate/ VP. The question is: which is the best combination? Prez Hillary and VP Barack or the other way around? Personally, my vote is for Obama/Clinton, and here’s why: it goes back to what I said about the kind of leader we need. Barack Obama has proven his ability to speak out against the status quo before the majority jumps on that bandwagon, and in our effort to break the curse the Bush Adminstration has cast on our country, we need a leader, not a follower. With Hillary Clinton to advise and counter what some may see as inexperience, we might just have one incredible duo.