<p>Hanna, exactly! Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face…</p>
<p>I could not vote for HRC due to the lack of integrity issues. Nothing to do with gender.</p>
<p>I would LOVE to see a female President and hope to vote for one sooner than later. Despite finding nothing worth cheering about in the current platforms of the Democrat Party, I would vote for a competent candidate from that party as long as she has a modicum of integrity. </p>
<p>Unfortunately for the DNC, Hillary Clinton was neither competent nor possessed a iota of integrity. Fortunately for the country, voters recognized the glaring limitations hidden behind her hypocritical mask. </p>
<p>I hope Obama does not feel compelled to throw her a bone and that this is the last we hear from the Clinton tribe.</p>
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The President does not have the power under our Constitution to create a Universal health care plan. Congress does. Obama will sign whatever legislation a Democratic-controlled Congress can pass – and Hillary really has more power as a Senator to shape the agenda for the next 4 years with Obama in the White House than with any other scenario. </p>
<p>So if Universal Health care is your goal, then you should support Obama for President, and then lobby your senators & congressperson to support the legislative change you need.</p>
<p>And in reality the Clinton and Obama health care plans were very similar. Not at all similar to the non-solution proposed by McCain.</p>
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<p>I already explained, I am not enamored of Obama and I gave my reasons. Let us see how he handles the VP issue and I will know whether he is a uniter as he claims.</p>
<p>I also like McCain. I have confidence he will do what he think is the right thing, even if I don’t necessary agree.</p>
<p>calmom, that’s such a good point. Frankly, I liked Hillary’s health plan better than Obama’s, but I didn’t think that was a good way to choose between them, because whatever they’re currently proposing will just be the opening shot in a long battle. Many groups, from both right and left of the president, will have their input into the plan before it is passed, because it has no chance of being passed without that input. It’ll be nothing short of a miracle if any of the three plans currently on the table is passed in recognizable form.</p>
<p>Munchkin, does that mean that choosing any VP besides Hillary will prove that Obama is a divider – even if he chooses someone far to the right of Hillary or a former Republican like Jim Webb?</p>
<p>If by uniter you mean taking HRC as the VP, it will never happen. Bill’s actions during the election have seen to that.</p>
<p>A cabinet spot perhaps, but not VP. Never, no way, won’t happen.</p>
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<p>The last time I looked, the popular votes for Obama and HRC are very close, she has her supporters, how does Obama reach out to that significant constituency ?</p>
<p>Calmon, an Obama Surrogate, John Kerry, said Universal health care wont be on the agenda if Obama wins the presidency. This indicate that health care wont be a priority for Obama. Nothing will be done about health care by either Obama or MacCain in the next four years, so I am moving on to other issues that I care about.</p>
<p>Why does he have to make a huge effort to reach out? Democrats that care about their issues will vote for Obama vs McCain. The same for McCain - the conservative Republicans don’t like him, but they won’t cross the party line.</p>
<p>Tega, please provide a link for that direct quote. I don’t believe that was ever said.</p>
<p>Tega, Congress sets the agenda for legislation in our country. The President has the bully pulpit, but the President has no power as to what Congress actually does, other than to propose legislation and the veto power. </p>
<p>(And I don’t know what your source is for the Kerry statement --I certainly never heard anything of the sort.)</p>
<p>The Kerry statement was never made. FUD</p>
<p>I do hope McCain takes Romney for VP though. His experience on Economy will swing over a lot of us, undecided voters.</p>
<p>I’ve been a Hillary supporter for many years and have certainly supported her during her primary campaign but the reason for my support had little to do with the fact that she’s a woman. Although I also like Senator Obama, I felt, and continue to feel, that she would be a better president. However, what I’ll do now, as I believe will all the people whom I know who have also supported Hillary, is to support and actively work for an Obama win in November. Their policies are so similar on so many issues that I can’t imagine anyone who believes in those policies would find it possible to support McCain. </p>
<p>I’m not sure how I feel about the possibility of Hillary on the ticket as V-P. On one hand, I think it would be of great assistance to Senator Obama for a few reasons and I think it would be a smart move for him to do so. She is a tireless campaigner who has a well-established infrastructure across the country with innumerable well-established contacts. She has an enormous base of supporters who might be more likely to remain actively engaged in the process if she were directly involved. Even if they would eventually vote for Senator Obama in November anyway, what happens between now and November will be important to the outcome of election day.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I think she can continue to do an excellent job in her position as Senator and, as others have said, there may be particular issues and legislation for which she could be an excellent advocate. I admire both of these individuals very much and hope that, regardless of who is chosen as Senator Obama’s running mate, that a Democrat is sitting in the Oval Office in January '09.</p>
<p>a) I haven’t decided what I will do in the Presidential race in November. The only option that is off the table is voting for Obama. I may sit it out. I may write in a candidate. I may vote for McCain.</p>
<p>b) Statewide, the chickens are coming home to roost (to borrow a phrase. A southshore woman who has been one of the four Mass representatives on the DNC for 28 years was just defeated for re-election by the state Democratic Party (punishment for endorsing Obama).</p>
<p>Senator Kerry is feverishly trying to prevent the state convention from putting a Democratic primary challenger on the ballot.</p>
<p>I will vote against Kerry and my district’s Congressman, John Tierney, at every opportunity – Democratic primary and/or for their Republican challengers in November.</p>
<p>I still support HRC for the nomination because I think only she can defeat McCain. But as I said long ago, if she does lose it will be because she didn’t reign in the “male hating, all men are evil” portion of her supporters.</p>
<p>She didn’t. It boggles the mind that these holdovers from the sixties don’t understand how another woman can care more about their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons more than they do about another women simply because they share the same gender. Very put-offing to reasonable people. </p>
<p>Hillary should have restrained those old scolds.</p>
<p>"I can only speak for myself. I am totally viewing this through the realm of my own experience. "</p>
<p>I consider that an amazingly narrow & self-centered viewpoint. As I’ve posted elsewhere, I, a woman, have experienced concrete ceilings – never mind “glass.” And I have been more competent than my male bosses on many occasions – way back when, and also in some ways even now. Electing this particular woman, now, will have no effect on my previous frustrations nor necessarily the experiences of young women today being promoted in jobs, etc. Is she running on a “woman’s rights” platform? (No.) Has she suggested an armload of <em>enforceable</em> legislation or executive orders designed to bypass male attempts at restricting women’s access to power – whether in business or in politics? (No.) She’s running as a symbol. She has repeated often, “I’m running so that little girls and little boys, perched on shoulders of their parents, can look at me, & (therefore) can look hopefully/admiringly (name your adverb) about what they can accomplish in life.” So she’s running as a SYMBOL? That does seem to be what her value is to many women on and off CC as well: somehow the "symbol’ will reverse their histories & improve their futures. (Not.)</p>
<p>alwaysamom, I think you have made a very reasoned post and I agree with all of it.</p>
<p>My concern about an Obama-HRC ticket (which I personally would like) is that it will alienate too many of the independents and Republicans who would vote for Obama but who disdain/hate Hillary.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with them, but I would hate to have him lose them by putting her on the ticket.</p>
<p>jmmom “My concern about an Obama-HRC ticket (which I personally would like) is that it will alienate too many of the independents and Republicans who would vote for Obama but who disdain/hate Hillary”</p>
<p>I certainly don’t see that many Republicans would not vote for Obama because of Hillary… how about they won’t vote for Obama because he is a radical liberal?</p>