My Heart Belongs to Hillary, But I'm Voting for Obama

Last week I posted a blog on the Huffington Post describing my dilemma; how confused I was swinging on the Democratic vine, sometimes towards Hillary, other times towards Obama. Truth is I found myself more often swinging towards Hillary, so why have I decided to vote for Obama in the New York primary come Tuesday?

Three little words. Hillary's war vote. The more I ponder it the more I find it not just a run-of-the-mill misjudgment, it was a catastrophic blunder, one that has stripped our country of its moral authority, nearly destroyed our economy, and most important, cost hundreds of thousands of human lives. As that wily old 19th century diplomat Metternich once said, "It was worse than a crime, it was a mistake."

Having said that, I must confess that I like Hillary better than Barack Obama in so many ways. Here I'm probably in the minority. I find her warm, sympathetic, and often courageous, much more so than Obama whom I often find cold, somewhat calculating, and hiding a real mean streak behind his affable smile and his idealistic talk. But none of this takes away from the fact that he could be a great president. He's got all the stuff to make a true leader, a measured, thoughtful intelligence, a passionate commitment to helping those who need help, and a manner that inspires the young. Oddly enough, I resent all those big-wig Democrat endorsements of Obama. They pulled me away from him rather than towards him. Sure, they are free to do so, but I don't want them influencing my vote or yours -- which fortunately they can't do. Indeed, it was Teddy Kennedy's endorsement of Obama that almost shoved me back into the Hillary camp.

Hillary is smart as hell, and God knows we need smart more than ever to get us out of this Bush hell. And I have wanted to vote for a woman because life has taught me that most women are smarter, kinder, and altogether superior to most men. But sometimes Hillary reminds me of the bright girl who sat beside me in the third grade who kept her arm over her test paper so that I couldn't copy her answers. In fact, that's at the core of my vote for Obama. Hillary's brilliance. I'm sort of okay when it comes to making a political judgment, but not half as informed or as bright as Hillary Clinton. And yet I knew at that time before the war that voting to give Bush war powers was worse than a crime. And that's what her vote did, no matter how she tries to spin it. Everything Bush had done prior to that vote showed that he would abuse his power, that he was an arrogant, willful bully and thus a coward, and would use other men's lives to prove that he was a real man. And of course, that's what he did. And she had to have known that too. Only she was preparing to run for the presidency and she wanted to seem properly bellicose to please the war crowd, and not risk being on the wrong side of history. It was just such a miscalculation that put her on the wrong side of history.

What do I like about Hillary if I fault her for all of the above? Well, she is one classy woman. The whole messy Monica affair showed that she had real guts and courage; that she could stare down public humiliation and go on to a splendid career and life of her own. This, despite the fact that some judgmental men and women were offended by her forgiving her husband and others saw it as political expediency. I viewed it as an honest effort to pick up the broken parts of her marriage and make herself, her husband, and her daughter whole again. I don't much care for her wonky oratorical style, but I like her smile, her giggle, her (God help me) charm, and I think she has raised a terrific daughter in Chelsea. I like the fact that Hillary is aging yet doesn't obsess over it, and that she deals with the important stuff like health care in a measured, intelligent fashion, and I am still wary of Obama's health care plan, and fear that all his inspirational talk can lead to demagoguery, as inspirational talk often does, still, I will vote for Obama come Tuesday.

This will be the first time in over fifty years that my wife and I will be voting for different candidates. She is fully committed to Hillary and thinks I am making a real error in casting my vote for the younger, less experienced, less tested candidate. But those three little words (give or take an apostrophe) "Hillary's war vote," won't allow me to pull that lever for her next Tuesday. By not 'fessing up and calling it what it was -- a tragic mistake -- she lost my vote in this primary. Yes, I would have voted for her had she done so. God knows we've all made terrible mistakes. It would take a book to list my own, and my vote for Obama may be one of them. Of course I will gladly vote for Hillary in the general election, should she win the Democratic nomination. She's a great woman and McCain would be an American disaster of monumental proportions, finishing the job of destroying this democracy that Bush started, engaging us in catastrophic military adventures in the name of national security, and thus lessening any security we still have, and any chance of reconciliation with the world. Add to that he would be packing the court with such zealots as Roberts and Alito, forced to play footsie with the Republican right -- and we would continue our downward slide as a democracy.

Oh yes, I promised one of my sons, the younger one, Chris, that I would publish a retraction. When I wrote last week that both my brilliant sons were voting for Hillary, Chris emailed me, "Whoa, Dad, what makes you think I'm voting for Hillary?" So I retract that statement. Only one of my sons is brilliant. The other one, like me, is voting for Obama.

Comments

[Gdebs]

Before the war started, with others, I demonstrated against going to war. I did it, knowing I was right because I knew Bush's framing and rational for war were wrong. Bush said Saddham had WMDs, was a threat to the U.S. and Israel and therefore we had to launch a preventive (not a pre-emptive) war against Iraq.
We belong to the United Nations and preventive war is not allowed and is a war crime. A preventive war says that someday nation X may be a threat, so we will destroy them now. A pre-emptive war is allowable if a nation is about to be attacked in at any moment. No reasonable person could believe that Saddham was about to attack Israel when it is known Israel has up to 300 atom bombs. He may have been nuts but he was not suicidal. No sensible person could think Saddham was nuts enough to be about to attack the U.S. with our 10s of thousands of nukes.
So I didn't give a damn if Saddham had WMDs or not.
And I wouldn't have given Bush the authorization to do anything. And neither should have Hillary

[thomdavis1]

Like you, I too am a Hillary fan voting for Obama. Three reasons for this:
1) yes, the Iraq OCCUPATION vote...I was on the streets of Kansas City marching in protests when being against the OCCUPATION was not cool to do...and I say to all the people who say that Obama either would have voted to give bush authority, or criticize him for funding the OCCUPATION: review his 2002 PUBLIC stance on this issue, and defunding the troops would do nothing to stop the OCCUPATION that bush has stated he would NEVER end while he is the imperial ruler
2) Obama has made a real effort to unite and not divide the country...the divisive mentality in this country must end
3) Obama will be the first Prez born NOT in 30's or 40's, but in 1961--a 13th generation Gen X Prez that embodies all that is good about my generation...savvy, practical yet complex, independent, responsible, and most of all: ALTRUISTIC...the Clintons are not of the 21st century (and anyone who thinks that "Billary" will not be ruling the country--are deluding themselves...Bill's ego is way too big to let his wife have all the fun, as he has proven)

[lochukung]

don't let your emotion drive and cloud your judgement. what else Obama is banking on beside attacking Hillary's Iraq vote? Don't forget there were total 77 senators (of which 29 were Democrats) and 296 House of Representatives (of which 81 were Democrats) voted to authorize Bush to use force against Saddam Hussein because Saddam Hussein repeatedly ignored the UN Resolutions to let the weapons inspectors back in. faulting, judging or defining Hillary on one singular vote she made was ludicrous. who actually got us into war? it's GW BUSH who hijacked this vote by using preemptive strike!!
in fact, all the mainstream media, who are accusing Hillary of bad judgement, were dancing in sync with the White House hitting hard on their drum for war. shame on these big media hypocrites! what about Obama's bad judgement in getting a sweet deal in his Georgian mansion purchase with the help of Tony Reszko as soon as he was elected to the Senate? is this simply to dismiss this as "boneheaded"? He is all but one of many venal politicians. we will see his true colors as soon as he attains more power, not to mention the Presidency.
there are more than one issue to talk about. Obama out of expedience of course relentlessly pursues this thinking this is his silver bullet against Hillary. Afterall it's the economy, Stupid!!

[tonyroma]

The classified NIE would have told Hillary all she needed to know about the false intel being pedaled by Bush and his minions, but she failed to take the time to go read it before casting her vote. Only 6 Senators read the report in which the State Dept's INR unequivocably stated much of the intelligence was not supported by information already known. Senator Durbin BEGGED his fellow Democrats to read the report, but obviously his voice fell on deaf ears. Neither Hillary nor John Edwards were among the 6.

If Americans are unable or unwilling to avail themselves of the undisputed truth then our fateful history in Iraq will likely be repeated again. No US representative should vote to send our sons and daughters to war without making sure every single morsel of information is devoured and that they are willing to stake their political careers on making the proper call when they vote. Barack Obama was an announced candidate for the US Senate in 2002 at the time he made his speech. He staked his own political career upon his judgment, something no one seems to want to do in the case of Hillary. Had Obama been wrong and everyone else been right, we would never have heard of him on the national stage.

People need to give credit where credit is due. Standing up against the rush to war for all the right reasons does prove that on the most important issue of our times, he had the courage to say STOP while everyone else said GO. It matters now, as it mattered then, for if we do not change the lens through which we view the world, aren't we doomed to repeat the same fateful mistakes by using the same clouded vision of reality?

[Nutcase]

You just don't understand politics. When the vote was taken, the country supported it overwhelmingly. To some extent the Congress is supposed to represent us. They should have a strong reason to go against the public. Hillary knew at that time she would run for President. Voting for the resolution was the only way she could go at that time and seem to be a viable candidate. It was a resolution, not a Declaration of War, although Bush interpreted it as such.

If Obama had been in the Senate at that time and considered running for President, he would have felt it necessary to vote for the resolution also. I do not want to hear any nonsense about him being more principled in light of so much evidence to the contrary.

This may seem to be from a Hillary supporter. It is not. Edwards was my candidate and I have difficulty with the two remaining corporate-owned candidates. It is merely to point out that too many posters and bloggers, having not held office as I have, hold very superficial ideas about what all candidates must consider when deciding their votes. This is not to say it is the ideal way for the system to work; just that it is the way it does work.

cognito ergo populistae

[May2002]

Thank you for Mr. Yellen for such a fair analysis.

I was fervent Obama supporter until his Iowa Victory. At that time, the mainstream media and Obama supporters started to engage a very nasty personality assassination towards Hillary, which turned me off completely. In this primary, mainstream media is evidently on Obama side. They often report Hillary in a negative angle while giving Obama simply a free ride (free air and print advertisement). It doesn't sit well with my sense of fairness. So my support for Obama has changed to my sympathy towards Hillary.

In the meantime, just like you, I also started to detect some of Obama's less appealing qualities, such as arrogance, calculation, coldness and his subtle Hillary putdowns doesn't sit well with me. Obama's ascendancy has everything to do with 24/7 mainstream media's favorable reporting. I sense this is coming from some anti-Clinton sentiment in the mainstream media.

Your ability to see Hillary's good qualities is almost refreshing in the midst of nasty Hillary bashing in this website. Contrary to many, once I decided to open myself again and forgot all the biases I held about her, I started to appreciate Hillary as what you describe. I realize she is indeed more likable than Obama. (I have no idea where her unlikability comes from.)

I was against the war before the war even started. So I agree with your rationale that it was too serious a mistake to forgive.

Anyway, I was also against the war even before the war started.

[Bad actor]

Review the Downey St. memo and how the use of lies, fear and secrecy encouraged all Americans to support Bush. Drawing from the info given to all of us by Cheney,etal, I think Clinton cast her vote as an act of patriotism to meet a challenge of a dictator. We all know now that it was just a big lie to generate fear so the Bushies who had experienced "Iraq Regret" for not taking the oil reserves in the first gulf war would get a second chance. Blame for the illegal war and social calamity which has followed has to be shared by those who swallowed the illusion that Bushies are patriots, compassionate and above greed and avarice--none of which is true. The vision of our Constitution and Bill of Rights is not a given and I salute Barach for his speech that rekindles that spirit; nevertheless, it will all be lost if the Republican control continues. As adults, we must recognize that there is no perfection on this earth and you sure as hell will not find it in a Presidential candidate including Hillary Clinton: however, she embodies the spirit that Barach speaks of so eloquently and is our best hope to recover the lost American Dream.

[gayleg]

PS: Your wife is right.

[gayleg]

Sooo fortune for Mr. Obama that he was a State Senator at the time. Considering his votes for continuing war funding, I have serious doubts he would have voted against the authorization bill if he were in the US Senate at the time.

Yet he can keep claiming he was against it and the politically naive will keep buying it. Sigh.

[wm1066]

When the right wing smear machine was going after the Clintons America gave them support with a 70% approval rating during the trumped up Impeachment.
Then when Bush was destroying all he could the Clintons were chumming up to them. It was like a betrayal.
Hillary voting for Bush against the needs of Americans.
I am so over the Clintons.If Hillary had been standing up for Americans I would still be behind her, But they both lost my vote!

[antaeus]

"I'm rooting for Gore but I'm voting for Ralph Nader." thanks, once again, to all of you unreasonable, idealistic Goldilocks jerks. I'd say your heads are in the clouds, but the reality is they are someplace else.

[nosanity]

Obama the great Divider

[nosanity]

The Kennedy endorsement was the last straw . Hillary is ahead 5 - 2 and two of those states don't count , the two largest states so far . That Russian guy was right its who counts the votes not who casts the vote that seems to matter most . Some bad business is going on with Dean and co. and so I will only show up in November to vote for Hillary Clinton . Go Hillary 2008 , Obama Nader GOP I'd rather have a root canal than vote for any of you .

[SweetJudith]

I stand With Sen. Clinton.

[SShaw490]

The Iraq war vote is Hillary's Achilles Heel, and she'll never be able to explain it away. Here's a reasonable theory about why she did it: She knew the resolution was going to pass anyway, she assumed the war would go well like Gulf War I, and if it did and she'd voted against it, her political future would be toast. So she voted for it and started making plans to run for president.

Here's what Obama said about that kind of thinking in a Charlie Rose interview in November '02: "I think there are times when we need to stand our ground and take our licks if that's what it comes to, rather than do what Democrats often do, which is to cave in and then whine about it afterward. Which makes us look not only weak, but also petty."

I've been firmly on the Obama bandwagon since he announced his candidacy - this is definitely an exciting time.