obama rising
by Ian Schuldt
Published: January 8, 2008
The democrats came out swinging the other night. Was it just me or is John Edwards officially running for Vice President now? I haven’t seen anyone that happy about a second place finish since the mouse got the cheese from an already sprung trap.
Hillary Clinton came out firing at Obama, just as expected. She not only took the gloves off, but I think she put some extra jewelry on. To Obama’s credit he defended himself very well. What surprised me, however, was that he didn’t really launch any kind of counter-offensive. But he didn’t need to. John Edwards did it for him.
Edwards seemed more concerned with distancing himself from the 3rd place Hillary then he did making up ground on Obama. He seemed kind of like that middle child that wants to make his older brother think he’s cool by picking on their little sister. They even had Papa Richardson there to break it all up.
With all the posturing and side taking that went on in the debate, I think we really started to get a picture of exactly who each candidate is. Each candidate is beginning to feel the pressure of these early primaries, and they are defaulting back to what they feel works the best.
First of all, Hillary Clinton, the old school politician. Rather than try and convince people she’s the best candidate on the stage, she was content to try and bring Obama back down to her level. This is exactly the kind of old school thinking we don’t need in the White House.
Attacking the positions of others rather than trying to stand on your own is what creates divisiveness. She will never be able to accomplish anything as President, because she will never be able to gain the full support of her own party much less that of independents or conservatives.
Second, we have Edwards, the consummate defense attorney. Even he knows he’s not the best candidate for the Presidency. He is essentially trying to secure second place. He figures if he aligns himself against Hillary, Obama will take him along for the ride as Vice President.
This is a tactic that he is well known for. Edwards constantly uses class warfare to appeal to the middle class. He doesn’t have good solutions for them; he just points at the rich “evil” corporations and says they are to blame for your struggles. Then he attacks the upper class (which he himself is a part of), and people believe that an enemy of my enemy is my friend, even though Edwards made up that enemy to begin with. Again this is a divisive tactic and it’s not what we need in the White House.
Now, Barack Obama. It’s easy to stay positive when you’re on top, but he showed me exactly what he’s been touting himself as since the beginning, a truly non-divisive character. A candidate who is truly fed up with the bickering and the name-calling that has consumed Washington since the Bush administration took office.
Some would say that he lacks experience, but with experience can also come prejudice and a belief that some things just can’t be changed. If there was one underlying theme of Saturday’s debate, it was that change is necessary. Obama seems to be the one candidate who really understands that to bring about change you need to have the support of the whole country. Not just the left, not just the right.
The divisive tactics used by the other candidates both on the left and the right are exactly what got us to this point today. We live in a country that is too busy fighting with itself to worry about the problems that really need to be solved. There comes a point when you see that the old ways of doing things just aren’t getting us where we need to go and a new voice is needed, if for no other reason than to give us new hope. Barack Obama is the only candidate that fits that bill, and in the past week, he has emerged as the best possible choice for the President of the United States.
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