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This isn't meant to be a hit piece on Hillary Clinton, but rather to lay out the reasons that were part of my decision-making process to choose which of these two candidates to support (I originally supported Biden). I have some "pro" reasons in favor of Obama, but here are the "negative" reasons against Clinton:
1) The "P" word - polarizing. It seems like half of the country dislike her, with a large portion of that reaching the level of dislike/hate that many have about the current occupant of the White House.
2) The "C" word - conniving. She and her husband seem willing to say and do almost anything to win. I know politicians hate losing, but the attempt to pigeon-hole Barack as "the black candidate", the desperate attempts (still ongoing) to allow FL and MI elections that were declared invalid before they ever happened, etc.
3) The "D" word - dynasty, as in the Bush and Clinton dynasties. There's been a Bush or Clinton in the White House for ~20 years (more than half of my lifetime). I think it's really time to give someone else a chance.
4) The "E" word - experience. She talks about her experience, yet when I look at the two biggest/toughest things she's been in charge of, she hasn't been that impressive. The first was the health care reform failure from back in 1992, and the second one has been her presidential campaign - to paraphrase Lincoln, she appears to be yanking defeat from the jaws of victory. She had every possible advantage in this primary election, yet has made mistake after mistake. In contrast, Obama has run a great campaign from the start.
5) The "I" word - independents/moderate Republican appeal. She has very little of this. If she won the presidency, it would very likely be another extremely close election without tons of appeal outside of Democrats. That would minimize her chances of actually succeeding in getting things through Congress, where we all know she'll need 60+ votes to get things passed in the Senate. So even if her ideas and Obama's ideas are similar (and many of them are), I honestly think he'll be more successful in actually getting things accomplished.
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