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March 11, 2008

Democrats: Stop Dissing Our Candidates

and Stop Them from Doing It Too!
By Marta Steele

My Assignment: To Laud Both Candidates

OpEdNews has given me the assignment of lauding Hillary Clinton because the site has
been accused of being too pro-Obama.
(editor's note: no specific writer was assigned any story on Hillary, but writers were
invited and encouraged to writer articles that support Hillary)
I think it is time for all of us—Democrats, Republicans, and Independents—to start
lauding both Democratic candidates in anticipation of all the fodder we are feeding
to the Republicans for McCain to use against us once the real campaign begins.
Otherwise, what will we have after the primaries? Two Democratic candidates like tired
dogs in the summer, hating each other, having split the party entirely—oh, what a
feast for Bomb Bomb. A wrecked Bam Bam or a decidedly downHill.
On Hillary: her accomplishments are too numerous to list. Like Obama, she practiced
law, but for a longer time, in Arkansas, serving also as first lady of that state. In
Arkansas, she had a good opportunity to mingle with conservative southerners
(Arkansas is a red state). As first lady of the United States, she traveled even more
extensively than Obama did, accompanying her husband in most of his expeditions
abroad.
Hillary attempted to establish universal healthcare in this county early in the Clinton
regime and promises to do so more successfully if elected president, as does Obama in
a first-time effort, with a record that supports this concern as well as campaign
promises as one of his top priorities. Hillary’s focus has been the well being of children
and women in this country, translating this concern into numerous acts—see here for a
very biased comparison of legislation sponsored by her and Obama.
Might we blame sexism for the fact that so much more of his legislation addressing
issues similar to hers were passed?
Since her 2000 election to the U.S. Senate, Hillary has co-sponsored or authored the
following legislative acts that were passed:
• legislation to track the health status of our troops so that conditions like Gulf
War Syndrome would no longer be misdiagnosed
• legislation that expanded health benefits to members of the National Guard and
Reserves
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• legislation that encouraged investment to create jobs in struggling communities

through the Renewal Communities program
• the Children's Health Insurance Program
• legislation to improve the quality and lower the cost of prescription drugs and to
protect our food supply from bioterrorism
• the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act
• legislation that will bring more qualified teachers into classrooms and more
outstanding principals to lead our schools
She was re-elected as senator of New York by a margin of 67 percent.
Hillary has been on the following Senate committees and subcommittees: the Senate
Armed Services Committee, the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, the
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions , and the Senate Special
Committee on Aging.
A Young Republican at Wellesley College Hillary was also a leader whose name
appeared ubiquitously on campus (I was there, overlapping with her last two years as
an undergraduate). And so, in addition to her time in Arkansas, Hillary was steeped in
Republican idealogy, a convert thus well backgrounded in the viewpoint of the
opposition—as well qualified as her fellow candidate, Barack Obama.
As Obama appeals to third world youth, Hillary is bound to be a role model for young
women, including those from the third world, feeling frustrated by a professional world
still dominated by white European men.
As far as her “coattails” ascendance to one step away from presidential candidacy,
consider that her role model, Bill Clinton, is considered by some to have been the best
president ever (His IQ, at 180, is the highest in presidential history.). She has lived the
presidential life, sweating and rejoicing with her husband. Consider that Obama,
considered the first black candidate, is half white and looks it. And so we are really one
step away from competition between a black male and a white woman. Will this be the
only time that such candidates campaign against each other (Gracias to
hillaryclinton.com for most of the above information.)?
On Obama: he is young and brilliant, having distinguished himself at Harvard to a
level to die for, head of the Harvard Law Review. Thence we have people skills,
leadership potential, brilliance on or off his feet.
Then we have a concerned activist, organizing in inner-city Chicago, all the way to the
state senate, where he gained bipartisan support for legislation reforming ethics and
health care laws. He sponsored a law enhancing tax credits for low-income workers,
negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare. Obama
also led the passage of legislation mandating videotaping of homicide interrogations,
and a law to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers
they stopped.
During his 2004 general election campaign for the U.S. Senate, he won the
endorsement of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, whose president credited Obama
for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms.
He was criticized by rival pro-choice candidates in the Democratic primary and by his
Republican pro-life opponent in the general election for a series of “present” or “no”
votes on late-term abortion and parental notification issues (I am indebted to Wikipedia
for the invaluable information in this paragraph).
And thence to the U.S. Senate after an unsuccessful bid for the House of
Representatives in 2000. In the four years he was there before succeeding to
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presidential candidate, he voted to eliminate gifts of travel on corporate jets by

lobbyists to members of Congress and require disclosure of bundled campaign
contributions under the "Honest Leadership and Open Government Act," which was
signed into law in September 2007.
He joined Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in sponsoring S. 453, a bill to criminalize deceptive
practices in federal elections, including fraudulent flyers and automated phone calls, as
witnessed in the 2006 midterm elections. . . . Environment specialists welcomed his
sponsorship with John McCain (R-AZ) of a climate change bill to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by two-thirds by 2050, but were skeptical of his support for a bill promoting
liquefied coal production. Obama also introduced the "Iraq War De-Escalation Act of
2007," a bill to cap troop levels in Iraq, begin phased redeployment, and remove all
combat brigades from Iraq before April 2008.
Later in 2007, Obama sponsored with Kit Bond (R-MO) an amendment to the 2008
Defense Authorization Act adding safeguards for personality disorder military
discharges, and calling for a review by the Government Accountability Office following
reports that the procedure had been used inappropriately to reduce government costs.
He sponsored the "Iran Sanctions Enabling Act" supporting divestment of state pension
funds from Iran's oil and gas industry and joined Chuck Hagel (R-NE) in introducing
legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism. A provision from the Obama-Hagel bill
was passed by Congress in December 2007 as an amendment to the State-Foreign
Operations appropriations bill. Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the
State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to provide one year of job
protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries
[ultimately vetoed by Bush—ed.]. (Gracias again to Wiki for the preceding two
paragraphs.)
We therefore have a strong progressive who will provide an inspiring role model for
youth who have taken an interest in politics and registering to vote. His meteoric
career adds to his appeal to youth and to all of us. We need a president we can look up
to and more than that we can be assured that, since there is nowhere higher to go
than U.S. president, he will stay put and be able to accomplish even more than he has
so far.
We can argue that our youth, as leaders of tomorrow, should have their candidate in
the White House; they threaten to drop out of politics otherwise. He is clearly capable
of promoting bipartisan cooperation, an indication that he truly will bring this county
together.
It is of the utmost importance to convince those in favor of a Democratic president
to come together now, as all three candidates are promising to bring the country
together once they are elected. It is of the utmost importance to emphasize the
strengths of both Obama and Clinton and and to aver that we will gladly support each
one as president.
Please be aware that, as far as the accomplishments of each excellent candidate is
concerned, I have merely touched the surface. There is far more evidence that each is
well qualified to be the next president, the most powerful position in the world despite
all the damage wrought by the present administration for the last eight years.
We might even give each of them the assignment of lauding each other on
the campaign trail. Let us set an example that becomes a historical precedent.
Consider that the Republicans already have only one candidate to support and thus the
public has time to forget all the dirt thrown by his unsuccessful rivals for the
nomination—those whom he defeated hands down in primary after primary. Let us
unite now before it is too late, before Democratic dirt defeats both candidates. Let us
put all mutual criticism well enough in the past to be forgotten by November.
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Authors Website: www.wordsunltd.com

Authors Bio: Marta Steele is a writer/editor/blogger/sometime
professor/indexer/proofreader extremely concerned that our democracy is going to pot
and using all my skills, including some knowledge of some foreign languages, to try to
make things better. I blog several times a week on peace and election protection,
among other issues.