Did you know that CNN rebroadcast the Democrat Debate all night long last night?
I had insomnia last night so I had the privilege of discovering this. Fortunately it was the kind of insomnia that allowed me a few spurts of sleep so I didn’t have to suffer through it all over and over, but the experience reinforced some of my opinions and made me rethink some of the candidates.
Despite being a woman, I am not afraid to admit that I made up my mind way before Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy that I would not be voting for her. While I think her husband was an excellent President, she has proven to be a horrible politician or perhaps she’s proven to be too good at it. She doesn’t take responsibility for how she votes and her voting record is so conservative, it’s almost Republican in nature. I’d love to see a woman as President of the United States, but I want someone I believe will do the job with integrity and will lead this country out of the quagmire it’s in both domestically and in foreign policy. I just don’t think Hillary Clinton is the right woman for the job; I think she’s an elitist and will say anything and promise anything to get elected; I think she cares about power more than she cares about this country and serving the Average Joe.
So, that said, I already have my mind made up about Hillary Clinton and there’s pretty much nothing she can say in these debates that is going to change my mind. I really don’t know what I’ll do if somehow she becomes the DNC nominee.
Anyway, I was very disappointed in Barack Obama and John Edwards, not that I was planning on voting for either of them in the primaries either. (I do want to note that Obama looks like he’s aged 5 years in the last year. This campaign must have been hard on him.) When they announced their campaigns, I thought they were kind of inexperienced but who knows, you know?
However, last night, I was so turned off by their mudslinging. It seemed like most of what came out of their mouths was negative comments about Hillary. I wished someone would tell them to shut up about Hillary and just talk about their ownselves, what they have accomplished and what they would do as President. Hillary doesn’t actually give real answers about solid plans. They don’t need to sling mud to make her look bad and it just makes them look bad.
Mudslinging is one of the worst parts of campaigning in my opinion. It usually makes me not want to vote for the person who did the slinging. I’m already tired of candidates pointing fingers and accusing each other of rotten people. Half a year from now we’re supposed to forget everything they accused each other of and support one of them and hope they back each other up. If Democrats and slinging mud at each other and Republicans are slinging mud at each other, how can we expect any candidate to be the right candidate, a candidate of integrity, a true leader worthy of our trust, a candidate who will be of the people and for the people?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve gradually warmed up to Hillary, and part of that is because everyone wants to tell me how unscrupulous and ruthless she is. When Rush Limbaugh goes on and on about how unscrupulous and ruthless she is, I figure that’s a story he wants me to believe, not something that’s actual fact.
She is a professional politician, and she knows how to fight dirty, something the candidate will unfortunately have to be able to do. But she convinced up-state New York to vote for her, and I doubt she did it with death threats. So I’m willing to listen, although I think I’d prefer Edwards or Dodd.
Debates are political theater. I really need to write a post about that. I haven’t watched any of the debates this year and I don’t plan to watch the general election debates either. It’s theater, it’s designed as theater, and all they are is spinning contests. To see where a candidate actually stands, you have to look at their voting history or executive history (if they used to be a governor). AFAIC, the only place to get information about a candidate that’s worse than the debates is television ads.
Oy. Don’t get me started on the ads. I noticed on Friday that they’re starting to flood the commercial airtime during the 2 hours of evening news. If they’re starting now, imagine how bad they’ll be by August of next year. In 2004 and 2006, I couldn’t stand watching t.v. when the Fall Seasons started and I am an avid t.v.-watcher.