At the Iowa caucus on January 3rd, the Democratic Party showed its support for Barack Obama with an astounding 38% of the votes, rising above both John Edwards Hilary Clinton. A week later, the nation watched in shock as Senator Clinton came back to beat Senator Obama in the New Hampshire primary, by a mere 3% of the vote. However, John Edwards once again emerged with a significantly lower percent of the vote, in this case only 17% to Obama’s 36% and Hilary’s 39%. Because of Edward’s low popularity in both the early votes and national polls, it seems certain that the Democratic nominee in 2008 will be either Hilary or Obama.
This, however, presents a potential problem for the Democratic Party. As much as we at Choate would love to think that people will have no problem voting for “the woman” or “the African American,” the simple fact is that this election has never been entirely about each candidate’s stance on current issues. In the upcoming months people will need to learn to look past the gender and racial stereotypes, and decide which of these two candidates would make a better leader of the Free World. It’s a tough choice.
On one hand, Hilary Clinton has experience in the White House, as well as her own experience as a human rights activist worldwide and as a U. S. Senator. She has an aggressive economic policy and is willing to do what she believes she has to even when it is not popularly supported. She has also used the word “change” more often in the recent debates than Barack Obama has. Clinton would be a strong voice for America, and she maintains that world leaders, even in Arab and Muslim countries, would respect a female leader. I am skeptical, but if they are going to respect any American President after the last seven years, it will be Hilary Clinton.
On the other hand, Barack Obama represents a different kind of change. He is young, hip, and somewhat inexperienced, but he has a fresh vision and would end the twenty-year Bush-and-Clinton dynasty. Obama is just as aggressive in his policies as Hilary is, although people tend to see her as the comparative hawk and him as the dove. He said in a recent debate that he would pursue Al Qaeda into Pakistan unilaterally, and that his first reaction to a hypothetical nuclear attack on American soil would be neither rescue nor recovery but retaliation. Both of these policies make me wonder if there is merit to the claims that Obama does not have the political or diplomatic experience to handle the presidency in this particular era. Barack has great charisma and is a wonderful public speaker, but it remains to be seen whether he can handle the problems facing America’s next President.
It is impossible to call the Democratic nominee after only Iowa and New Hampshire, but they have started a long and interesting race.
