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I am a political junkie. I am one of the handful of people who actually still reads the newspaper everyday (the NYT everyday, often the Columbus Dispatch as well). And I spend a lot of time on political blogs and websites. I am a registered independent (who is switching at least temporarily to democrat so I can vote in the primary as I also did in the last presidential election). I am quite liberal. I have never voted for a republican before (for a major office at least). I am antiwar, always have been. I don't want a republican to have any chance at choosing the next Supreme Court justice. And I have never held an anti-Hillary bias.
However, the extents that Hillary and Bill have gone to in order to smear Obama in the last few weeks; knowingly taking quotes out of context, knowingly distorting his voting record, the race-bating, the lowering the level of political discourse, etc. etc. are reprehensible and smack way too much of the tactics that have put W in office for the last two terms.
I am sick and tired of the political bickering that amounts to nothing getting done in this country. I am sick of politics drawing such a line down the middle of this country that I find it hard to feel I might have something in common with somebody who voted for Bush once, nearly impossible if they did it twice. Based on what I have seen from Hillary of late, I fear that we are in for 4-8 more years of this crap if she gets the nomination and then proceeds to get elected.
I have been having a serious internal debate with myself recently about what I will do if HRC gets the nomination. It won't be much of an issue if McCain doesn't get the nod from the repubs. In that case, I'd almost have to vote for her. However, if McCain does get the nod and is up against Hillary I'm going to have to do some serious soul searching. I hate his war stance. I disagree with a lot of his more conservative viewpoints. And I dislike how he has drifted further to the right in the last 4 or 5 years. I am sure that politically I have more in common with HRC's beliefs and platform. But at the end of the day, I at least feel like I can trust McCain. I'm not saying that I will vote for him, just that it would be a more difficult choice than I ever thought that it would be.
Obviously, I am an Obama supporter (who would also be more than happy to see Edwards in the oval office). But I am not making this post to simply smear her. Rather, I am making this post for two reasons;
1) In response to people that think that Hillary is a shoo-in to win the election if she gets the democratic nomination. These people need to understand that I am liberal as hell and never ever thought that I would even be thinking about the prospect of voting for a republican (especially after 8 years of Bush). Yet, I will at the very least, have a very hard time voting for her if that is what it comes to (and I would never choose to not vote). And there are many more like me. I find it hard to believe that many independents who lean more to the middle or the right will vote for her. And even harder to believe that many republicans will crossover and vote for her.
2) To hear if anybody else is experiencing any similar feelings/dilemmas to mine. What are other people's perspectives? Is anyone else just recently coming to the feeling that they might dislike Hillary, or, have most of those that dislike her always felt that way?
PS - I know that Obama got nasty today as well. But, Hillary and Bill (whom I'm losing more and more respect for everyday) are the ones that shifted things in this direction. The problem is if Obama just sits back and lets himself get attacked people will say that he can't stand up for himself and the fact is that these things do affect people's perception of the candidates. Much like what happened to John Kerry in '04 when he chose not to respond to the swiftboating for nearly a month.
I wish ALL of the candidates could/would just talk about THEIR policies/stances/etc. But, unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be how the whole politics game works.
Okay, I'm sure that I'm about to get accosted . . .
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