04 Feb 2008 9 Comments
In Search of a Green President II
Tomorrow is “Super Tuesday”. I’ve been waffling about who to vote for. A black man or a woman – both smart, liberal and politically correct. How do I choose? Do I go for the candidate who is the most likely to inspire the nation with new ideas, or the one who knows how to work the system in Washington but may be stuck in old patterns? Do I go for the one with the Kennedy blessing or the one with Johnson’s political skills? (those of you who were around in the later 60′s will understand what I mean)
As those of you who have been reading my blog know, this year I have simplified my decision-making by focusing on a single issue, Global Warming. My stand is that it won’t matter what else we do if we don’t have a livable environment to do it in. Fortunately I am on all sorts of conservation-minded e-lists run by people who are happy to provide information. The California League of Conservation Voters sent me some this morning, a set of responses to questions they asked all the candidates. You can find the answers on http://ecovote.org/answers/
In a nutshell, of the Republicans, McCain is the only one with any environmental track record at all. None of the Republican candidates answered the questions. Both Democratic candidates did. Both of them have their hearts in the right place from my point of view. But as you will see if you look at the answers, one candidate answered with general statements and the other with clear detailed descriptions of what to do and how to do it.
If Barack is elected, I expect he will put together a brain trust of people who will advise him on strategies. But Hillary already knows how to tackle the problem.
She gets my vote tomorrow.
Feb 04, 2008 @ 20:48:28
I’m stiiiillll kinda partial to Barack, gotta admit.
Thank you, though, for not voting for Mike Huckabee. I’m just sayin’. (The man scares me to no end, and I feel it is my civil duty to thank people for not voting for him. LOL.)
Feb 04, 2008 @ 21:21:24
Ehhh.
She’s too entrenched in the system. This is the woman that sat on the Board of Directors of WalMart for years, and did nothing but gain financially from it – look at their ongoing practices. She’s far too beholdin’ to the political machine, and has far too many favors owed given the 8 years of her husband in the White House. Add into this that she’d never be prepared to repudiate the mistakes of her predecessors (including her husband) I just can’t see any real hope for change outside of Obama. He’s the only one I see that I think is going to be willing to stand up and say “You know what, world? We’ve been WRONG. Now let’s fix it.”
Feb 04, 2008 @ 21:22:56
thanks for posting this. i’m passing it on.
Feb 04, 2008 @ 21:47:52
My thoughts… if this sounds too debatey feel free to screen or delete
I’m for Obama. That said, if Clinton is the Dems’ nominee, I’ll vote for her under the “better than any of the Republican candidates” principle.
I worry about presidents who already know how they will tackle the problem. The last president already knew how he would tackle “the” problem (from his perspective), and Clinton voted for his solution… I think not because she believed in the war, I hasten to add, but because she, like just about every other experienced politician, knew that if Bush was publicly proven wrong, they could blame the war on him, and if they blocked it and he managed to keep up the WMD charade, they would be painted as terrorist collaborators until the end of time. And I can’t get behind the kind of cynicism that would allow that to happen to protect her career.
I understand and respect the rationale behind your single-issue position. I don’t feel comfortable making my own decision that way. I think it’s going to take a broad strategy to prevent and ameliorate the effects of global warming across the board. I feel (irrationally) more convinced that a candidate who was able to say that the war was wrong from the start would be able to make some of the unpopular decisions that will be necessary to address the climate effects.
Willingness to listen to a panel of advisers is, to me, a plus and not a minus. But I’m sure Clinton didn’t put that plan together by herself, and if she has better advice, it stands to reason that she will do a better job. If you think her current plan reflects better research and better advice on this issue then your reasons for supporting her seem sound to me.
Feb 04, 2008 @ 22:13:18
While I agree that Hilary has more of a plan in place just this moment, it also seems to me that Obama is doing a lot better at getting the people behind him, and might be willing to look at more, and more novel, solutions than Hilary, from her well-entrenched position, can.
I still think it comes down to having an organization vs having a movement–and Obama has a movement.
I’ve seen regular people holding up his signs twice this past weekend: once in the pissing-down rain on that new pedestrian bridge on I-80 near University, and once this morning at Harrison and MacArthur.
They might make a good team–but not an electable one, not even given how much we’ve been dicked over. Surely they (and the DNC) know that this would be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
So–I also agree with one of our earlier statements that Hilary will move better within the corridors of power, and be appropriately sneaky and all that jazz, but Obama will have more of We the People behind him, more of the land.
I’m voting for Obama tomorrow morning, but I’ll vote for whichever Democrat wins when it comes time for the general election in November.
However, it doesn’t matter worth a good goddamn in California anyhow, and the Republicans know that–the state will go Dem, and the real battles will be elsewere–Ohio, Michigan, Florida, all the usual places.
Whoever does win…will need strength in battle.
– Lorrie
Feb 05, 2008 @ 02:29:48
I’m in the same boat. Also, Obama has a better environmental track record of his own, from what I’ve seen. Which is to say, the League of Conservation Voters gives her 90% and him 96%. But then Barak has a better score with the ACLU (which, yes, I know isn’t about Environmentalism, but Civil Rights IS my second highest priority).
So. Also, my impression is that Hilary’s knowledge of the system and how to play the game makes her great for the Legislative branch, but not so good yet for the Executive branch. I’d like to see her go through being either a governor or a vice president before I make her president. But I’ll take her over any of the republican candidates, yeah. So… I’m leaning towards Obama.
–Ember–
Feb 05, 2008 @ 03:31:21
Hey there-
For what it’s worth, I think you need to ask yourself: one person, one plan, or one person, able to get a group behind him to create a more solid, lasting plan?
Hilary voted for the Iraq war, which has sucked away our budget surplus and, environmentally speaking, meant a huge drain on our resources both literal, in terms of oil and rising oil prices, and figurative in terms of military usage. Consider how much gasoline is being used by those motorcades in Iraq and Afganistan. Consider how much waste occurs shipping soldiers overseas, and back, and overseas again. Consider the sheer waste of it all, the pollution it has caused in both Iraw and Afganistan, and how all of that factors in to her “plan.”
It doesn’t. To me, it makes her look like someone willing to say a lot to get elected, and then waffle in the backrooms.
We’re voting tomorrow, too, and mine’s going for Barack Obama.
Feb 05, 2008 @ 03:49:35
Green President?
Well, I certainly won’t be unhappy if Barack wins the nomination. But I thought the fact that Hillary had actual plans instead of just sentiments means she has actually spent some time thinking about how to achieve the goals, and the problem might be higher on her list of priorities than it is on his. It’s hard to tell from public speeches, as all the candidates are going to talk about what they think people want to hear, and for most of the country environmental questions come a long way behind the War, health care, and the like. However it is true that if Barack does tackle the problem, he has a good chance of getting people behind him.
Feb 05, 2008 @ 05:35:03
Re: Green President?
I’m voting for Hillary myself, as it happens. Frankly, I prefer specifics to generalities, and I don’t think Barack is sufficiently experienced and tactically skilled.
However, as McCain seems sure of the nomination on the other side, and since Congress will probably stay in Democratic hands, in either case the Prez will be aware of the issue.