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shadowkatOkay really happy that I'm not commuting into Manhattan tomorrow - it's going to be packed due to the Giants Parade.
Anyhow...the primaries are tomorrow. I'm still on the fence between OBAMA and Hillary. I'm a registered democrate, I think, so can vote in the primary in NY. Whether I do or not is still up in the air.
Here's who the progressive feminists are supporting and why:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/NYfeministsforpeace/
Me?
Ugh. Hillary Clinton is a tough lady. She's pragmatic, has had experience with the difficulties of passing a National Health Care Program, knows the Senate and how to get the two parties to work together, knows first hand what happened during 9/11 - having seen it from both her Husband's perspective, New Yorker's perspective and current administrations, has a strong desire to take this country in a different and more positive direction, and I like her views:
1. Universal affordable healthcare with choices including keeping your current coverage or choosing from the same plans as Members of Congress. The only difficulty is she wants to make it a mandate rather than a choice. But I think that may be a good idea - since if we mandate that people have health insurance we will be better able to control disease outbreaks and promote wellness across the board. The downside of course is most people can't afford to do that. But if we give those people a tax rebate - as she proposes - and mandate that it be used for health care, that could solve the problem. On the other hand - it will also create a lot of paper work, slow down the system, and could result in a lower standard of care not to mention more bureacratic red tape as we have seen with Hillary's other great accomplishment - HIPAA.
2. Protect homeownership by freezing home foreclosures and protect homeowners from predatory lenders. Okay. Sounds good in theory. But, that puts Banks at risk - and we are already having troubles with banks closing or merging and the loss of jobs. How can you protect homeowners and not cause banks to close or other problems from emerging?
3. Common Sense Spending - Don't Spend What you don't have on what you don't need. Yeah, but she's as guilty as the rest of them for pork. Padding bills with stuff for her constituents.
4. Tax Fairness - tax relief with New York's middle class...not bad.
Also it would, I admit, be nice to have a woman president. But I'm not voting for someone just because they are a woman, any more than I'd vote for someone just because they are black or a man.
Hillary has a strength and pro-activeness that I'm not certain I see in Obama. As well as a pragmatism. Obama feels very idealistic to me. Almost too good to be true. And I'm not sure the fact that he reminds me of JFK is necessarily a good thing. JFK - if you remember - didn't do much as president except almost start World War III and get us into Vietnam. It was LBJ who signed the Civil Rights Bill and pushed Medicare through. LBG, who was less charismatic, was able to get a lot more done and was far more pragmatic. So the comparison makes me uneasy. Charisma doesn't always make a good leader, just a likable one and while it helps to have a likeable leader, it should not be the main thing.
On the other hand? Obama was against the Iraq war. And more importantly is less divisive than Hillary. I know Republicans that would vote for Obama. A lot of people really hate Hillary, democrats and republicans. So, I think Obama may have a better chance at winning the General Election. Plus, Obama seems to be motivating people in a postive way. People seem to like him.
I don't know. What do you guys think? I probably won't be responding to the comments, I just want to know what people think - regardless of whether or not you are American or of voting age. So this is open to everyone.
[Poll #1133149]
Anyhow...the primaries are tomorrow. I'm still on the fence between OBAMA and Hillary. I'm a registered democrate, I think, so can vote in the primary in NY. Whether I do or not is still up in the air.
Here's who the progressive feminists are supporting and why:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/NYfeministsforpeace/
Me?
Ugh. Hillary Clinton is a tough lady. She's pragmatic, has had experience with the difficulties of passing a National Health Care Program, knows the Senate and how to get the two parties to work together, knows first hand what happened during 9/11 - having seen it from both her Husband's perspective, New Yorker's perspective and current administrations, has a strong desire to take this country in a different and more positive direction, and I like her views:
1. Universal affordable healthcare with choices including keeping your current coverage or choosing from the same plans as Members of Congress. The only difficulty is she wants to make it a mandate rather than a choice. But I think that may be a good idea - since if we mandate that people have health insurance we will be better able to control disease outbreaks and promote wellness across the board. The downside of course is most people can't afford to do that. But if we give those people a tax rebate - as she proposes - and mandate that it be used for health care, that could solve the problem. On the other hand - it will also create a lot of paper work, slow down the system, and could result in a lower standard of care not to mention more bureacratic red tape as we have seen with Hillary's other great accomplishment - HIPAA.
2. Protect homeownership by freezing home foreclosures and protect homeowners from predatory lenders. Okay. Sounds good in theory. But, that puts Banks at risk - and we are already having troubles with banks closing or merging and the loss of jobs. How can you protect homeowners and not cause banks to close or other problems from emerging?
3. Common Sense Spending - Don't Spend What you don't have on what you don't need. Yeah, but she's as guilty as the rest of them for pork. Padding bills with stuff for her constituents.
4. Tax Fairness - tax relief with New York's middle class...not bad.
Also it would, I admit, be nice to have a woman president. But I'm not voting for someone just because they are a woman, any more than I'd vote for someone just because they are black or a man.
Hillary has a strength and pro-activeness that I'm not certain I see in Obama. As well as a pragmatism. Obama feels very idealistic to me. Almost too good to be true. And I'm not sure the fact that he reminds me of JFK is necessarily a good thing. JFK - if you remember - didn't do much as president except almost start World War III and get us into Vietnam. It was LBJ who signed the Civil Rights Bill and pushed Medicare through. LBG, who was less charismatic, was able to get a lot more done and was far more pragmatic. So the comparison makes me uneasy. Charisma doesn't always make a good leader, just a likable one and while it helps to have a likeable leader, it should not be the main thing.
On the other hand? Obama was against the Iraq war. And more importantly is less divisive than Hillary. I know Republicans that would vote for Obama. A lot of people really hate Hillary, democrats and republicans. So, I think Obama may have a better chance at winning the General Election. Plus, Obama seems to be motivating people in a postive way. People seem to like him.
I don't know. What do you guys think? I probably won't be responding to the comments, I just want to know what people think - regardless of whether or not you are American or of voting age. So this is open to everyone.
[Poll #1133149]
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Uh...pretty much what you said.
Date: 2008-02-05 02:30 pm (UTC)Damn, I wish I still lived in Wisconsin, for SO many reasons.
Anyway, environment (global warming and energy policy) is my number one issue, since all the others will be moot if we don't get our shit together on that topic real soon. Health care and the economy are a close second. At this point, I think the war is moot, too. We're in there and I think we're staying there for at least another decade, so I think it's going to be a matter of intelligent management. Any of the leading candidates can likely do far better than the clusterF*** we currently have in power.
Frankly, at this point I wouldn't even be that disturbed by a McCain win. Dude is old-skool Republican, which is a lot different than the crazed religious big-spendy family values types of the post-Reagan era.
As long as Huckabee :shudder: and Romney don't win, I'll live with it.
Re: Uh...pretty much what you said.
Date: 2008-02-05 10:55 pm (UTC)(My parents currently live in South Carolina which is also conservative - Democrats rarely win down there.)
Living New York is a lot more fun from a political stand-point. It's more varied. My work place is conservative but my neighborhood is fairly liberal - except for my landlord and neighbors who are conservative.
I did vote. Not who I thought I was going to vote for last night when I wrote this post. I changed my mind during the day.
I don't think you are going to have to worry too much about Huckabee - I think he's going to be pulled out of it soon. Romney? Is too wishy-washy. McCain is going to drive conservative Republican's nuts - since he appears to be a bit of a maverick.