My 2008 Presidential Possibilities (Part 2)

Part 2 - Why the leading Democratic presidential hopefuls are essentially unelectable, or at least would be if we had anyone good running

Hillary Clinton (polling at 39% down 11% in the last month) - This is the easiest one to figure out. She's a fraud-committing carpet-bagging penisless shrew of a senator, all of which spell doom for a presidential hopeful. (Fraud = Whitewater, Carpetbagger = Arkansas to NY just to get a senate seat, penisless = being a woman hurts more than people will ever admit to a pollster, shrew = she's not likeable at all--meanwhile people like Bush campaign essentially on being likable, and finally senator = she'll have trouble running against a former governor or someone with executive branch experience). And this is even before we get to her issues, and lack thereof. Aside from her healthcare plan, which is just like Edwards', she's waffled, dodged questions, and done so much not to piss people off that she's pissing people off.

Barack Obama (polling at 24% without significant change) - Unfortunately, and I hate to say it, his biggest weakness is his middle name: Hussein (I don't think this makes him unelectable, but it hurts his chances in today's environment against a white Republican governor). Every attack ad will end with something like "Barack Hussein Obama: Wrong on [issue], wrong for America." What his biggest weaknesses SHOULD be are: (a) that he's a young guy in the middle of his first term with no experience and (b) that he opened his mouth. Let me explain (b) a little bit, because it's why I need to take back my endorsement of him. Back when everyone sucked and he was neutral, I was pulling for him because I liked his fashion statement. I like the no-tie look. I'm trying to help him bring it back. We shouldn't care what people wear, or how they look (all this crap about "looking presidential" makes me lose faith in democracy). But then he had to start talking, and he lost my support when he proposed his healthcare plan. He has a REALLY dumb idea. Make affordable coverage universal but not mandatory. This means that it punishes people who do what people should do, and get insurance. It rewards people who don't have insurance, because they can always get it later when they get sick. In fact, it creates an INCENTIVE for insured people to drop their insurance, knowing they can just sign up for it later when they get sick. The idea of insurance is we all go on it, share risk, hope we don't get sick, and have a cheap safety net if we do. This isn't that.

John Edwards (polling at 15% without significant change) - I have to say, right now he's looking the best to me (of everyone polling above 4%). He's too closely tied to lawsuit happy trial lawyers, and should but won't support a federal-level malpractice tort reform law (which would be huge in PA, a battleground state, and serve to distance himself from that bad image...which I actually pointed out to his campaign...they responded by spamming me). He's not the sharpest tool in the shed, and throw in the fact that in the last election he was the Vice Presidential loser...and he's looking like a handsome up-and-coming youngster, who should still be playing JV, pulled off a shallow bench. He still lacks presidential gravitas.

Right now, though, he's got my vote. I'm actually considering of switching party allegiances (I'm currently registered Republican) to vote for him...in addition to sucking the least, his healthcare plan is pretty good. Also, he has a positive message that I think would be therapeutic for the country. Despite his notable shortcomings, and my assessment that in any other year he'd be pretty much unelectable, this time he's got a shot. And I think we should give it to him. He might make something of it, while the others seem intent on squandering their opportunities in exchange for political positioning.