Clinton or Obama?
Feb 1st, 2008 by nick
We have two great candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for president: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I will happily support either of them against any of the Republican contenders, and I think they both would make superb presidents. Additionally, each of them would bring historic diversity to the oval office as the first female or first African-American president. Sadly, we have to choose only one of them as the candidate. And I have to choose soon, as the Colorado caucuses are next Tuesday!
Clinton’s and Obama’s positions on the issues seem similar enough that I don’t think it’s worth voting strictly on policy positions. Looking at other factors, the conventional wisdom seems to be that Clinton is more prepared to be president and will be a stronger leader, starting from day one. On the other hand, Clinton inspires so much venom from so many people, that Barack Obama might be more electable. Like it or not, fair or not, Hillary Clinton is polarizing. Obama will attract moderates and independents who like his message, if not his positions. I have a harder time believing that Clinton will get the moderate and independent votes. On the third hand, Obama has received far less media scrutiny thus far than has Clinton, and I think is attractive to many people partly because he’s relatively new on the scene. So his electability may go down once he’s the center of attention and the media and Republicans start hounding him.
My ideal ticket would include both of them: Clinton for president and Obama for vice-president. But I don’t feel that I can support Clinton based only on the tenuous assumption that she’ll chose Obama as her running mate. So basically, I can’t decide for whom to vote in my caucus. I’m open to arguments on either side… at least until next Tuesday night.
Here’s a possible reason why Obama might be more electable than Clinton. Black men got the right to vote in the U.S. decades before women got the vote. White men were more open to having black men vote than having women vote. We are therefore probably more likely to have a black male president before we get a female president. I’m not saying that it should be this way, only that this would follow the trend of our history. Therefore, if we want to choose the democrat most likely to beat a republican, it would make sense to vote for Obama.