Hilary Clinton Vs Barack Obama

Hilary Clinton Vs. Barack Obama

ABSTRACT:

All over the world, true democracies are measured on not only how often they hold elections, but also how free and fair are the elections, how inclusive the elections are but also how competitive they are. In both the presidential (United States) and parliamentary (United

Kingdom ) forms of governments, elections are a true measure of the strength of the democracy. There are different types of elections. They include general elections, by-elections, primary elections etc.

Elections are decision-making processes where the general citizens (those who are legally eligible to vote) choose the people who are to govern them for a certain period maybe four to five years. By conducting elections and choosing the government then what the people say is that the power given to the government belongs to the people.

ANALYSIS:

The United States elections of the year 2008 that are scheduled to take place on the fourth day of November 2008 will include presidential elections together with their vice presidents. At the same time new senators will be voted in, there will also be a couple of state and local elections without forgetting the election of new members of the House of Representatives. The elections will mark the 55th time that the country has held quadrennial elections in its history.

The 2008 general elections will be a very special election. This is because there is something that will be happening that more than half of all United States of America citizens have not seen

Hilary Clinton Vs. Barack Obama

in their lifetime. This is because the elections will mark the first time since 1928 that the country will be going into the ballot box without having an incumbent president or vice president carrying the ruling party’s flag to the elections.

This is because neither president bush (whose second term will be expiring-constitutionally he cannot vie) nor the vice president dick Cheney (has categorically refused to run) will be spearheading the campaigns.

Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama are the key leading candidates in the democratic front. Despite the fact that they have a similar overall cause, they have some key differences on some of the ways that they will address some key issues. These issues range from the housing sector, the energy sector, foreign affairs as well as healthcare.

In terms of foreign affairs especially concerning the war in Iraq and the fight against international terrorism, Obama has made his points clear unlike Clinton who looks a little bit indecisive. On this issue Obama, has made it clear that he would not fail to take action in Pakistan

if there was “credible actionable intelligence”. In addition, Obama has criticized the bush Cheney model and has urged his rivals to come up with their views on the issue publicly and not conserve their views as if it is a concern for the white house.

In addition, Obama has stated that in order to guarantee peace then the American nation needs to move from a pinnacle of fear, instead move ahead with the great legacies of America’s forbearers, and practice their rights with hope, strength and optimism. As a result the famous line “let us never negotiate out of fear….but let us never fear to negotiate” has become a crucial campaign advert for the Obama camp.

Hilary Clinton Vs. Barack Obama

On the other side, Hilary Clinton has been seen to avoid answering the question directly. However, she seems to support the bush style when she is quoted as saying that “the surge is working” in Iraq. However, she has said that she does not want to talk about the issue openly for the fear of propaganda. This statement has caused her to be criticized on many fronts since

there is no time that the United States has taken the back seat on a contentious issue like this.

Another area where the two front-runners have conflicting ideas is in the field of health care and insurance. On this field, each of the two candidates has their own ways of going about it. Hilary Clinton hopes to make sure that all Americans are covered. This will be done in two different ways. Firstly, there will those who will be covered officially through the government or private sector schemes. Secondly, she intends the rest of the people to be covered through some kind of “individual mandate”, however, she has not directly indicated how this individual mandate will be achieved but she has suggested that she would seek the congress to implement some enforcement mechanism.

On the other side of the table, barrack Obama is of the view of introducing medical insurance cover for all Americans. This view has been criticized by his rivals who claim that this is practically impossible. In his defense for his pledge, Obama has reiterated that what he envisaged was free insurance cover for all children. Thus as this process goes on he has claimed that at the end it will be equivalent to free medical insurance for all Americans.

Conclusion:

Compared to other general elections the 2008 presidential elections seem to be the one that will be contested. This is firstly because no incumbent will be running. Historically incumbents have a relatively higher chance of being elected. Secondly, the 2008 elections has become some kind of an online election. In search of votes, many candidates have turned to the internet. As a result, history is in its making as republican candidate Ron Pol sends records tumbling as he made history by raising $4.2 million in a single day on November 5 2007.

Hilary Clinton Vs. Barack Obama

In addition to this there is a new debate springing up within the political divide. With support for African-American candidate, barrack Obama increasing, new questions of whether the time is ready for America to have a black president have become commonplace.

Because of all this, campaign issues have gone further this time round to encompass issues that are centuries old like the issue of slavery and slave trade. In addition to this, issues of religion have sprung up especially after it had been falsely rumored that the democratic, African-American candidate barrack Obama was indeed a Muslim and that he had attended the Madrasa some place in Philippines or Indznesia.

References:

Balz, Dan. "Candidates Unite in Criticizing Bush", The Washington Post, April 27, 2007.

Available at:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/26/AR2007042602593.html

www.associatedcontent.com/article/392089/poll_voters_trust_democrats_more_on.html www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18271517/

www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_2008__1/2008_presidential_electi on/illinois/illinois_2008_presidential_election