I Am No Longer A Disinterested 3rd Party

Posted by Seth Kramer on Thursday, July 26th 2007 at 10:44pm



So up until now I have been a disinterested 3rd party with respect to the '08 elections. I remain disappointed that the accelerated primary calendar is forcing everyone to take sides so soon, but at any rate after the YouTube debate I was left with no other choice.

I really wanted to like Bill Richardson because of his foreign policy experience, but the fund raising wasn't there, and his Iraq policy (basically get out as fast as possible) sounds dangerous and infeasible. So casting him aside I think I'm really only left with Edwards, Obama, and Clinton as realistic choices.

Edwards has begun to grate on my nerves with his "my daddy worked in a mill" bullshit. I can understand and share his concern for the poor, but it's starting to sound like the kind of class envy, and he's bordering (no pun intended) on being the Lou Dobbs of the Democratic party.

So left between Clinton and Obama. I really tried to like Hillary, but as I posted before, there are 6 reasons I can't vote for her, and her debate performance only solidified her as "Bush-Cheney lite" in my book. The comments about Obama being "naive" etc. tell me she's playing politics in the same way her husband did. Don't get me wrong. He was a very good President but he didn't do much to cool the partisan tone in Washington, in fact there were times I know he egged it on.

Then there was the answer about diplomacy. Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmedinajad, and Kim Jong Il are dickweeds, but talking to them doesn't legitimize their beliefs. It took Stalin to help destroy the Nazis, based upon the principles of Clinton and Bush's foreign policy it would have been better to allow fascism to conquer Europe than to talk to Russia.

Anyway Obama's response to Clinton's jabs was strong and appropriate. One of my big beefs with Obama has been his inability to defend himself for fear that it would be seen as a partisan attack.

He is inexperienced. I do have some reservations about that, but none that couldn't be overcome with a strong cabinet, or a Veep with some serious foreign policy credibility (Perhaps Richardson). If experience is Clinton, who has only been in the Senate 4 years longer than Obama, then experience sent us to a war so foreseeably disastrous the Germans wouldn't even go along with it (come on, when was the last time the Germans weren't up for a war?)

Clinton is literally more of the same. I'll take change.

Anyway, this was supposed to be a single sentence or two but I got rambling. I gave my first $100 of the campaign season to Senator Obama. I'm just telling you so you can take it into account when I offer my opinions about the election.

Also I've been very busy traveling for work this week, but I hope to post a blog (not about politics for a change) this weekend.

I'm feeling tired
I'm spinning Anderson Cooper
My Obama Fundraising Page: BarackObama.com