Wednesday, June 04, 2008
It is Barack Obama
Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee to face John McCain in November.
Concern about the economy now takes top place among voters. The war in Iraq continues to be an issue -- no longer the foremost one. But for this voter, and many others, Hillary Clinton's support for the Iraq War Resolution, and failure or refusal to admit that it was a mistake, became the focal point of support for Obama.
Among the vast number of reports about Hillary Clinton's loss the one that struck a chord was by Beth Fouhy, Associated Press.
"WASHINGTON - On her first campaign visit to New Hampshire, in February 2007, Hillary Rodham Clinton was confronted by a voter who demanded she explain her 2002 Senate vote authorizing the U.S. invasion of Iraq. I want to know if right here, right now, once and for all and without nuance, you can say that war authorization was a mistake," Roger Tilton asked Clinton. "I, and I think a lot of other primary voters — until we hear you say it, we're not going to hear all the other great things you are saying." Clinton replied, as she would repeat in the ensuing months: "Knowing what we know now, I would never have voted for it." Her refusal to admit error failed to satisfy Tilton, a 46-year-old financial analyst from Nashua even though he loved her position on health care and capping Iraq troop levels." |
We had opposed the war, marched against it long before the first pair of boots landed on the ground in Iraq. At that time the deception about non-existent WMD was largely unknown to the general public; there were only suspicions. We were vindicated. The coffins, however, continued to come back from Iraq and civilian death toll kept mounting.
Come November, if McCain should prevail, are we going to regret our position? Some of us might. Many Democrats fear that Obama cannot win in a national election because he is black. The fact that racism exists is undeniable. Whether it is going to be a deciding factor is something we'll have to wait to find out.
