Richardson backs Obama

I was a big supporter of Bill Richardson while he was running for office. In the past I really thought either Hillary or Obama would be great candidates someday, but 1. I was surprised that Obama decided to run this time around. I felt like it was a little too soon. And 2. I just don't like the way the two of them have been acting in this campaign. Bill Richardson really stood for everything I wanted in this campaign and I was terribly sorry to see him not get the attention he deserved while he was still in the race. Those other two are such attention whores that they detracted from someone who had some really great things to say about the issues that people really care about.

So, once it was down to just the two of them, I decided to back Hillary. There are several reasons why I chose her over Obama. Mostly, I just like her. I went to high school in Arkansas while Bill was governor and I saw both of them speak at state events and I just really liked them. She's a strong woman and she really supports health care reform, which is one thing that is important to me.

I also have some sort of spiteful reasons for choosing her over Obama. I REALLY hate it when people say that Hillary voted for the war and Obama didn't. Obama wasn't in any position to even cast a vote period. And trying to say now what you would have done back then and comparing it to what someone actually did back then is just a low, unfair maneuver. Everyone knows hindsight is 20/20 and the information available at the time was completely different that it is now or even what it was 2 years ago. There were a lot of democrats who voted for the war. (Vote roll call) This was the number one thing people were saying at the caucus I attended. I practically bit someone's head off when they used that to try to convince the Hillary supporters to move Obama's side. I was so furious at the ignorance of people. And yeah, yeah, I know he never actually came right out and said that, but he sure has been doing things to reinforce that misconception.

I also just think Obama is naive. We need someone who is savvy and can patch up a lot of our foreign policy issues. I know he speaks well and has a certain charm about him, but he needs to have some clue about what's going on. I mean, if he's at this point in his run for president and he doesn't even know that Canada has a prime minister and not a president, then that just doesn't do much for my confidence in his knowledge of world politics. I mean, really. This is Canada we're talking about. If he doesn't even know what the hell is going on in our neighboring country's government, then what's that say about his knowledge on the rest of the world? Our local NPR station has a reporter from Canada on once a week to talk about the news and that was where I first heard about this. I don't think it got a lot of attention here, but it was the laugh of the week for Canadians.


I also like the argument that says Obama would beat McCain in a general election and Hillary wouldn't. Well, polls are not accurate enough to count on when the numbers are as close as these are. But oops, lookie here. The current numbers (as of 3/21) show that isn't the case anyway.
Obama vs. McCain
Clinton vs. McCain
But, like I said, these polls are not accurate enough to make any kind of determination, but it is fun to look at them. I know that I plan on voting for Hillary if she's the candidate, but I can't say that for sure with Obama. McCain doesn't look too bad to me. I'm registered as an independent, so I have no party lines to cross.

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not saying that Hillary is a saint. We all know what kind of problems she's gotten herself into in the past. But, I feel like she doesn't deserve the kind of hatred that is directed toward her. I found this article on cnn.com that was written well before this current election started. I'm much more willing to trust things that were published prior to the current he said she said crap going on now.

I just have to say that I'm disappointed in Bill Richardson for choosing Obama over Hillary.