1/10/2008

Why I Wouldn't Vote for Hillary

As the 2008 presidential campaign heats up, I'd like to stick in my two cents (by the way, I think that Americans can weigh in on Israeli politics, too; I'm not one of those 'If you don't live here, you can't have an opinion' folks).

I'd like to see McCain become president. Giuliani would be my second choice. Amongst the Democratic candidates, I prefer Barack over the others. Don't press me for why; some candidates I just don't like, and others I just like. I guess I look for people who are 'real', and not just talking heads.

And then there's love-her-or-hate-her Hillary. I'm no fan of Bill, but one thing that Hillary said during her senatorial campaign which just totally summed up why I can't stomach her. She was asked whether she's a Yankee fan or a Met fan.

Before getting to her answer, some background: I hate the Yankees. I'm from Baltimore. My wife's from Boston. Before we decided which teams we'd encourage the kids to root for, we agreed that they'd be Yankee haters. Nevertheless, I can understand and respect that a New Yorker would be a Yankee fan (a non-New Yorker Yankee fan is a tail-rider, AFAIC). I have more respect for Met fans, because they choose to stick with a team that's the local underdog.

Back to Hillary's answer: "I like them both". No. You're not allowed to say that. You can't like them both. Clearly, she felt that she didn't want to alienate the fans of one team by saying she supports the other. See, but that's the point. She's a phony. She said what she thought would be politically expedient, not what she believes. I'm not so fickle a person that I wouldn't vote for Giuliani because he roots for a team I hate. He has his preference, and he doesn't try to hide it. He wears his Yankee cap everywhere and attends games. Had Hillary said "Gee, y'know, I really don't follow baseball much", I'd have understood and respected that. Not everyone's a baseball fan. But she didn't say that. She tried to please them all by, for lack of a better term, lying. I understand that politicians often must do this, but when it's so pervasive that it even extends to fundamentally trivial matters, it becomes abhorrent.

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