Editorials

What’s ahead as we turn the pages on a New Year now a bit over two weeks old? Politics is all in the news, but whether or not mainstream America is tuned in remains to be seen.

My prediction stands: Sen. Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination. Once again I add that I favor Rep. Ron Paul, who has no chance. Hillary Clinton’s stunning loss in Iowa prompted the political pundits to predict the end of her campaign as they busily crowned Barak Obama the next presidential standard bearer for the Democrats. Polls showed Obama pulling away from Clinton in New Hampshire.

But guess what? Hillary won in New Hampshire. Not by a whole bunch, but in politics a win is a win is a win. And all of the early crowning was not fair to Clinton or Obama. Their respective candidacies have prompted two questions: one, is can a woman be elected president of the United States, and two can a black be elected president of the United States? The answer is yes and yes.

This discourse about gender and race is healthy. As a registered white Peckerwood, I resent it when I hear women say America is not ready to elect a woman to the highest office in the land. In fact, some of the same criticisms I hear about Hillary Clinton – that “she is too mean, too calculating, not trustworthy,” – are the very attributes I want in a president.

We don’t need a choir boy in the White House. Presidents have to be tough as nails at times. Don’t you think Harry Truman had to make a tough call when he chose to drop the atom bombs on Japan to end World War II?

My biggest complaint about Hillary is she feels she knows what is best for me and mine and her answer is more government. We need less government, not more, but you don’t get elected by telling people what they don’t want to hear.

Black people are energized as never before about the exciting candidacy of Obama. He is easily the best speaker and the most charismatic. My biggest complaint about Obama is he lacks experience, but I think if he won he would get the best and brightest in his cabinet and we have elected inexperienced presidents before. (George Bush, for example, and look what a great job he has done – NOT).

My prediction is that the Republicans will settle on John McCain as their nominee and Hillary will defeat him in the fall. America is hungry for change and the candidate who best positions himself or herself as the agent of change will win. President Bush has so damaged and divided the Republican Party, I don’t think they will be able to muster a united effort against the Democrats, regardless of who gets the nomination.

At the end of the day one caveat: If my old boss, Mike Bloomberg, mayor of New York and now an Independent, gets in the race, all bets are off.

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