This Blog post is written on Friday evening to sum up my reasons for supporting Hillary Clinton. I just finished watching the New Hampshire Democratic Party 100 Club on C-Span, where she and several of the other candidates spoke. I saw for the first time in a bit too long the Hillary Clinton we saw before the past three or four months. Maybe she's back. Maybe "Hillary Will Be Hillary" now, after Iowa. Let's hope.
Hillary Clinton is not perfect, but she will make a great President. Before I go on I should mention that I think the rest of the Democratic field would do just as well -- not better than Clinton, but no worse. We're going to win this one in November. Barack Obama is incredible, and his win in the Iowa Caucus was impressive. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd have done so much for the nation as great servants in the Senate, and it's sad they have withdrawn their candidacies after just one caucus. John Edwards has taken on Corporate America and he is right-on as he speaks about their emphasis on "corporate prosperity" instead of "corporate responsibility." Dennis Kucinich speaks to my heart in many ways on many issues. Bill Richardson has tremendous experience and can contribute much to our future as well.
I was a very early supporter of Hillary Clinton -- on December 6th, 2006, I wrote my first Blog post backing her, and that was six weeks before she even announced. By then I had known enough about her to be convinced that whomever else announced, I could support her.
I first met Hillary Clinton in 1991 at a small Portsmouth meeting as she was campaigning for her husband. She was fantastic, and I'm not easily impressed by political-types since I've seen a lot of them going back a long time. So many seem a bit phony. So much of what you see is image. Yes, after all this time I'm still cynical about a lot of politics.
What has always impressed me most about Hillary Clinton from the beginning was her naturalness. It's her "I-am-who-I-am" attitude and "what-you-see-is-what-you-get." In fact, my only real criticism of her in recent months -- other than on a few issues -- has been about her campaign and the way she has allowed herself to be overly-managed It happens. All the candidates have their "handlers," and some are over-zealous. Focus groups, polls, and the political consultants who base campaigns on those results are the bane of politics. So often they make good candidates less than they are. Candidates have to stand above it all, and I think Hillary Clinton eventually will. Perhaps she already is. Perhaps we're beginning now to see Hillary as Hillary.
There are lots of reasons any of us choose for whom we will vote. In addition to others, here are my three special reasons for supporting Hillary Clinton:
REASON #1. KNOWLEDGE OF THE WAY THINGS WORK. Knowing the behind-the-scenes process of decision-making is a skill that can't be learned by reading a book, and she has learned that very personally and first-hand for the past two decades.. She knows how to advance meaningful health care because she tried, but failed. One often learns even more from their failures than their successes. She was in the center of great successes during an eight-year administration. She wants to get out of Iraq. She has done much for kids. She is committed to health care for all. She wants real education reform. She can do the job. She IS ready.
REASON #2. BILL CLINTON. Yes, him. I really believed in 1992 that "two for the price of one" was true. I still do. Bill Clinton can do much as the President's husband, and his future potential role as world ambassador cannot be underrated. His international respect is well-known. The election of Hillary Clinton as President will greatly enhance America's standing in the world, and will save lives here and abroad. I believe that. And it is so vitally needed. Our future security depends on it.
REASON #3. SUPPORT OF EQUALITY. I met Hillary Clinton for the very first time at a small meeting in Portsmouth in 1991. As I had with various Presidential candidates or their surrogates through the years, as she was leaving the meeting I asked what her views were on gay rights. For the first time ever with a candidate or a surrogate, I found I didn't have to further explain what I meant, and she didn't "whisper" her answer to me -- which other candidates or surrogates would invariably do.
She loudly, and clearly, without hesitation, said that gays and lesbians should be equal, because we are Americans like everyone else. Bill Clinton during that campaign took on the message that "each of us counts." When he became President he lived up to that, and many times he, and Hillary, spoke out for gay and lesbian equality, and fought discrimination for all in many other ways. I believe Hillary Clinton means it when she talks about equality, and she was there for all of us years before many others were, and long before it became somewhat easier to be an open supporter of gay and lesbian equality. That's important to me. She'll be with us even more in the future.
Hillary Clinton will make a great President. I believe in her ability. I admire her courage. I understand some of her limitations. I like her vision for America. I'm not a jumping-up-and-down cheerleader for her believing that she can do no wrong, because she is human. But in large part because of my past words of concern about the campaign she has run up to this point, I am even more sincere in saying she should be President.
ADVERTISEMENTS 
Comments
I am a young voter- this will be my first Presidential primary- and I support Hillary! How can I not be inspired by the woman who declared women's rights are human rights? She has the experience to make a difference ON DAY ONE- she doesn't need a learning curve. My generation-- the generation losing friends to the war in Iraq, the generation who will inherit the debt burden from Bush, the generation who faces rising costs of healtcare- needs Hillary in office to make real change happen now!
Posted by: CLR![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.blogthecoast.com/primary/presidential/nav-commenters.gif)
|
January 6, 2008 12:00 PM