Politics

When thinking about this election cycle several years ago, I fantasized that it would feature Hillary Clinton vs. Colin Powell. Not only would that be two options that would make me pretty happy, but it would also guarantee a major milestone of a woman or African American as president. With the announcement today of McCain's VP pick, an approximation of that fantasy is coming true. Ignoring for the moment McCain's recent pandering to the right, I can have some hope that even if McCain is elected he will be a decent centrist president. Plus, we're guaranteed that a ticket with either a woman or African American will win in November!

A few weeks back I would have been completely opposed to the idea of Hillary Clinton as Obama's VP.  I'm not a big fan of the Clintons and would see choosing her as a perpetuation of the old guard in the party rather than embracing a new, less-partisan direction.  Also, a significant fraction of the country hates the Clintons.

However, this week I've had a change of heart of sorts.  First of all, in the campaign at least, Obama doesn't really seem like a new kind of candidate (and he probably can't be if he wants to get elected).  Also, it's clear that the people who despise the Clintons will despise Obama too.  I should have known that from the beginning. 

One of the favorite themes of the talking heads lately has been how McCain has been following Hillary's blueprint for attacking Obama (link):

"The McCain campaign believes that some of Hillary Clinton's tactics, especially questioning whether Obama is ready to lead, can be a real winner," Schneider said.

Clinton nearly overtook Obama during the primary campaign after she started airing ads asking whom voters would rather have answering a 3 a.m. call to the White House.

"The McCain team has been very open that they went to school on the Hillary Clinton campaign, that they learned from that," Gergen said.

Ironically, McCain's success in following Clinton's game plan could breath more life into her VP prospects.  Obama must be feeling a little vulnerable, as McCain has pulled into a dead-heat in the polls (link).  Instead of feeling like he doesn't really need Clinton, these days he might be feeling more like he'll lose without the white, working-class voters she might help bring.

I also underestimated how stubborn Hillary's supporters would be about rejecting party unity and not supporting Obama.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll also points to a big challenge for Sen. Obama as his party gathers in Denver next week for its convention: rallying Sen. Hillary Clinton's supporters to his cause. Only half of those who voted for Sen. Clinton in the primaries say they are now supporting Sen. Obama. One in five is supporting Sen. McCain. The Republican has reached out to Clinton supporters by offering steady praise for the former first lady and hinting that he'd be open to a running mate who supports abortion rights.

Apparently there is still a significant effort by Hillary supporters to derail Obama's nomination (link):

A massive e-mail and Internet campaign is under way aimed at derailing the nomination of Barack Obama and making Hillary Clinton the party's standard bearer next week at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

"It's downright nasty," said Memphis, Tenn., superdelegate and city council member Myron Lowery, who has shared dozens of the messages he's received with The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal newspaper.

Most of the messages Lowery has received from across the country come from Hillary supporters making the case that she won more voters' votes in the primaries, she won bigger states, that Obama won states that won't vote Democratic in November, and that she is the only "electable" Democrat.

I still think the chances of Obama picking Hillary are slim, but it wouldn't bother now like it once would have.

A few weeks back Elliot and some friends were making pamphlets.  Below is the one he made.  Apparently our neighbor's yard sign has made an impression.

I have said repeatedly that I would have been completely in, fully in support of the federal bill that everybody supported - which was to say --that you should provide assistance to any infant that was born - even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion. That was not the bill that was presented at the state level. What that bill also was doing was trying to undermine Roe vs. Wade. By the way, we also had a bill, a law already in place in Illinois that insured life saving treatment was given to infants.

So for people to suggest that I and the Illinois medical society, so Illinois doctors were somehow in favor of withholding life saving support from an infant born alive is ridiculous. It defies commonsense and it defies imagination and for people to keep on pushing this is offensive and it's an example of the kind of politics that we have to get beyond. It's one thing for people to disagree with me about the issue of choice, it's another thing for people to out and out misrepresent my positions repeatedly, even after they know that they're wrong. And that's what's been happening.

(link)

I watched Rick Warren's Civil Forum tonight.  I really liked the way he emphasized, at both the beginning and the end, the value of civil discourse and resisting the urge to demonize your political opponents.  That's a message that both sides need to hear if they are really interested in the best interest of our country.

I thought McCain did a good job saying what his supporters and potential supporters want to hear.  There were a couple of things that especially caught my attention in light of my post from yesterday on Marital (In)Fidelity.  The first was McCain's answer to the question about what was the greatest moral failure in his life.  I knew the true answer was the failure of his first marriage, but I wasn't sure at first if he was going to give that answer.  I was pleasantly surprised that he did.  The other was in answer to the question about adoption when he related the story of Cindy bringing home their adopted daughter from Bangladesh.  I thought that was a testament to the strength and fidelity of his second marriage…that they made adoption a part of it.  I didn't think he should have kept apologizing for telling anecdotes.  The combination of telling so many stories and drawing so much attention to the fact that he was doing it highlighted his old codger liability.  The commentators of Fox were emphasizing how McCain was often answering the questions before Warren even finished them.  I think the commentators were complimenting him, but that wasn't a good sign in my opinion…though his supporters probably liked it.

I thought Obama did an OK job though I doubt he made any significant gains and agreed with the Fox commentators that he didn't make a winning play on the abortion question.  Maybe it wasn't possible for him to do so given his positions on the issue and those of his party, but that was one of his main openings that this venue provided.  I also thought he should have mentioned Al Qaeda at least in passing in his “is there evil” answer, though I wish McCain would have also mentioned a few other examples than just Al Qaeda.