Dr. DAN CALDWELL
Distinguished Professor of Political Science
I have worked for a Democratic presidential candidate in every election since 1976. I have worked from the grassroots level as a precinct worker to serving on the Clinton-Gore transition team. I worked for the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 and again in 1996. But I do not support Sen. Hillary Clinton in 2007, and these are my reasons why.
First, I am really not sure where Hillary stands on many issues. Take Iraq, for example. In 2002, she voted in favor of going to war in Iraq. Now, she says that she opposes the war but has never repudiated her vote in favor of the war. Hillary seems to have adopted the policy of “triangulation” from Dick Morris of her husband’s administration and consequently, it is hard to tell where she stands on issues and what positions she might take in the future. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., opposed the war from the beginning and has not deviated from that position. I am attracted to his principled consistency.
Second, Hillary has had the support of the Democratic Party apparatus, hardly surprising given her efforts to obtain it and her husband’s still impressive popularity, the now prospective “First Gentleman.” Democrats who are not part of the party establishment, however, are restive and are looking for a fresh candidate with new ideas and policies. Obama is that person to many.
The third reason I support Obama over Hillary is experience. The Clinton campaign has claimed that Hillary has far more experience than Obama, but is this really the case? If one uses the criterion of time in elected office, Hillary has seven years and Obama has eleven years (counting both the Illinois and U.S. senates).
But experience in politics should be measured by experience in life, not just the number of years spent in elected positions. Obama has had varied and rich experiences in his relatively young life: born of a white mother and African father, raised in Indonesia and Hawaii, lived in California, New York and Massachusetts, and worked as a community organizer in Chicago. Given these life experiences, Obama may have the widest experience of any candidate, Democratic or Republican, running in this presidential race.
Fourth, thanks to the inept, unpopular policies of the Bush Administration, the United States has gone from being more strongly supported by the international community following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 than at any time since the end of World War II to a position of unprecedented criticism, if not condemnation. How can this unfortunate and even dangerous situation be turned around? Only dramatically, and the election of an African-American president and Latino vice president (what else is Bill Richardson running for?) would send an unambiguous and powerful message both domestically and internationally that the United States would be on a far different track than under Bush and Cheney.
Fifth, the founding fathers sought to create a democracy in contrast to the monarchy headed by King George III. As of the end of 2008, two families will have controlled the White House for 20 years. If Hillary is elected to two terms that control could be extended to almost three decades. I think such control is unfortunate for the type of democracy that the founding fathers sought to create.
Last, I support Obama because I want a Democrat to win, and I do not believe Hillary is electable. Hillary is well-known to voters and has very high negative ratings, in the range of 40 percent. It is highly unlikely that Hillary will attract voters “the more they get to know her.” Americans already know her, and almost half of them do not like her. In short, she is an enormously polarizing politician who has been and is likely to continue to be a divider rather than a uniter, a characteristic she shares with the current occupant of the White House.
Obama has support among both Democrats and Republicans, regularly draws crowds of thousands, and his successful fundraising efforts show widespread appeal among regular Americans and not just the establishment of the Democratic Party establishment. In addition, some Republicans are drawn to Obama’s fresh, exciting approaches. In short, Obama, and not Hillary, could truly become the uniter of our presently deeply divided country.
Dan Caldwell is distinguished professor of political science at Pepperdine University and co-author with Robert E. Williams, Jr. of “Seeking Security in an Insecure World.”
01-24-2008