(Please excuse the soap box, feeling cranky.)
First, if you know me, you know I don’t agree with the Iraq “war”. It is my personal belief we are in Iraq because of oil and (sadly) I am paying near twice as much for gas today as I was a year ago. Over four times as much as I paid in college (early 90’s). This just aggravates me. Enough said, as I have no desire to be marked as a protester and visit Guantanamo by the Bay (a fine Boston Legal episode).
Second, related because it is politics and money: It is no big secret that I am backing Obama in the upcoming presidential election (like we need four more years of republicans to take us into another war). If anybody can introduce change, Obama can. For those who say “The president is just the president and he/she cannot effect change” I encourage you to think about the pre-G. W. Bush USA and the current USA and ask yourself if there has been change. If you aren’t aware of any change, I encourage you fill the tank, take an airplane trip, surf the web. What percentage of your paycheck goes to just filling your gas tank? It is a sad state of affairs that only visiting Europeans think we have reasonably priced gas.
I had nothing against Hillary Clinton during the race, she just wasn’t my personal pick. A good race takes multiple candidates. I have read Obama’s books. I have listened to Clinton and Obama speak. I just happen to feel, of the current contenders, that I am the most closely aligned with Obama. If Hillary had gotten the nomiation, I could have lived with her, but my preference is Obama. I think he is the most “genuine” of poiticians in a long time. Just my opinion.
The problem I have will Hillary is that it was clear months for before she resigned that Obama was going to take the nomination. Not hours, not days, not weeks, but months — yet, she stuck it out until the end. I can appreciate her competitive spirit, her dedication to her supporters, but she was borrowing money (from herself — because she didn’t have adequate contributions from her supporters — a first clue to drop out) for a long time to fund her campaign. Now she is stuck with a huge debt from her campaign. This is all well and good, but now she is begging and pleading and crying and asking Obama supports to pay her debt (and asking Obama to cry for her). WAH! She should have her supporters pay down her debt, or if it is money she “borrowed” from herself, she should just lump it – she should have dropped out earlier when she clearly didn’t have the financial backing. If I borrow money to get “X”, >> I << have to pay that money back. I don’t ask my neighbor to bug his friends to pay that money back. Why should Hillary get to ask Obama’s supports to pay back her debt? Sure, she can ask, but should she expect Obama supports to pay down her debt?
If random people out there have a burning desire to pay off other people’s debt, please get in touch with me!! I will gladly take your “contributions” (no strings, please). What kind of president would Clinton have made? Borrowing millions of dollars to pay for an obviously failing campaign that even her supporters wouldn’t adequately contribute to? Scratch that, that is clearly the sign of a “good politician”: how many people, if it were optional, would choose to have their tax money fund the current war then pay $4.23/gallon for gas?