My Take On Hillary

I've been trying for a few weeks now to figure out why it is that I'm so loathe to vote for Hillary Clinton in the general election, should she be the Democratic nominee. Clearly, given what I believe to be the biggest problems in the nation at this point, any Democrat would seem to be my best choice this time around, so long as the Republican is one who has so closely aligned himself with President Bush.

Certainly it can't just be the negative campaigning, although there's been a lot of that. And it can't just be frustration that she keeps on when mathematically it seems absurd to think she's got any shot of winning this thing, thus dividing and tarnishing the Democratic party at a time when all indications should be they should have an easy walk to the finish line.

I think I've finally figured it out. Listening to her speak, I think she shares one very important common view with President Bush, and it's the single most toxic piece of the President in my view: a belief in the Imperial Presidency.

I get the sense that Clinton shares the feeling that the President is a 4-or-8 year elected king, rather than one of three co-equal branches of the United States government. I don't get the sense that she'd do anything to curtail executive power back to where it belongs, but rather that she'd dig in her heels and have to be dragged, kicking and screaming (if Congress or the Judiciary even have the will to do so) back to the proper Presidential place in the Constitutional balance of power.

And that, I think, makes her an equally toxic candidate.

Now, comparing her to John McCain, who I liked a lot in 2000 and who has gone a long way to proving me wrong in that assessment. My impression of McCain is that he's pretty set in his ways... and that he's far too close to Bush on a lot of issues, but I don't particularly perceive him to be in the Unitary Executive camp, or at least no more so than Clinton, and he wins over her in one major respect: He's 72 years old. If he wins, in 4 years he'll be 76 and who knows how the stress of running the nation will have affected him. I think there's a very good chance that he would not run again if he won, giving us another shot at someone who put the good of the country over his-or-her own Presidential power, while the chance that Clinton wouldn't run for a second term is almost nil.

All in all, of the three, I have to say I like Obama. He may have less experience, but he's got the idealism and at least a wish to correct some of the excesses of the office, and that gives him a lot of points in my book. But if he's not the nominee, I may just have to vote for McCain. If not, it'll be an opportunity for me to write in a "moral-but-no-chance-of-winning" candidate, because there's simply no LESSER evil to vote for.

Liam.