I think Hillary's strong enough, smart enough, and tough enough to be a decent president. She may be a good one if elected. I am endlessly frustrated by her centrist take on things because the middle ground between this version of the GOP and the rest of America is still a god-damned pit of despair. Most of America is where the Democrats are on almost every issue. I also find despair in Obama's apparent niceness in the face of what will be a nasty, brutal, ugly fight with the GOP if and when he becomes the nominee.
As far as experience goes for anyone, I am not that concerned. Bill was not too terribly experienced but he made up for it in intelligence and curiosity. I remember, after not voting for him in 1992, reading an article about how he would spend evenings in the rafters watching Congress do its work so he could learn more about the processes... constantly taking notes and researching to learn more about how it all comes together in Washington. Experience is overrated especially where it meets intelligence and leadership abilities that allow one to surround oneself with competence.
I used to be called a conservative by my D friends who now call me a progressive, i.e., to the left of the Democratic leadership... and I haven't changed my basic policy priorities in the 20+ years I have been engaged with politics... priorities that are grounded in pragmatism and logic. If you believe me, that tells you much of what you need to know about how far the shift has been in the parties but not necessarily the public. We need a lurch back to the left just to get us where the people want us to be.
Here's the problem, however: the people only express these pragmatic positions if asked in a straight-forward manner as opposed to loaded questions (loaded, in its lightest form, meaning the use of any word carrying the weight of political connotation inherent in every political speech, editorial, advertisement, a/o news article. For example: do you think people should have the right to decide for themselves when to start a family vs. do you think women should have the right to abortion on demand (the very word abortion now being loaded and 'on demand' feeding the notion of a pushy bitch)?
So, what is needed is a big rhetorical push back by whoever the D nominee is in order to call BS on irrational, illogical, loaded, unfair, and/or coded rhetoric that has infected our regular discourse. I don't see that in a compromising HRC and I don't see it in a "smile-on-your-brother" BHO. There needs to be a fight from the true center so most people will recognize that the D nominee is where most people are otherwise propaganda wins again.
If the D nominee is incapable of reminding the public of:
- the massive fiscal irresponsibility of the GOP in recent times when the GOP nominee says that a certain policy will cost too much money;
- the fact that misleading the nation into war on, at best, wishful pretense that ignored the caution advised by military, intelligence, and diplomatic professionals is not the way to strength when the GOP nominee says that the D's lack of militarism is weakness;
- the fact that blanket wiretapping w/o warrants, restricting protestors from the sight of the president, securing public records from any oversight, overt appeals to religion, torture, no-fly lists, unitary executive practice, the arrest and detainment of American citizens and legal residents with no recourse to courts & no appeals & no access to accusatory information for mounting a sufficient defense & with no time limit on detainment are contrary to so many parts of the Articles and Amendments in our Constitution that the past 7 years have been steeped in anti-Americanism when the GOP nominee says the D doesn't care about protecting America or anytime the GOP nominee praises freedom and the policies of the current executive together;
- that 3 strikes and you're out, mandatory sentencing, limits on reproductive freedom, limiting scientific research, shunning scientific findings or discrediting them based on politics instead of non-partial countering scientific information, and the war on drugs have invariably made us less free, arguably less safe, and have cost us countless billions of dollars better spent elsewhere;
- that raising taxes may be the only option to save us from bankruptcy as a nation and, therefore, as a still revolutionary idea, that raising taxes on the super rich while implementing taxation policies that close numerous loopholes to avoid the tax cheating of the past may be fair since these people have gained so much from our system that they should pay back a bit more, that raising taxes on behemoth corporations who also have benefited so greatly from our system may be the only thing that keeps us viable as an economy since the money raised can be used to secure public goods that all use and give a helping hand to small businesses that may have better ideas for the future than the stasis preferred by large corporations (a stasis that has snuffed potential breakthroughs, squashed the American dream for most, and ensured that wealth is concentrated in too few hands), and that raising taxes for something like a national health care system will actually represent a savings for the American people and businesses;
- that a massive reduction in the size of the military and the subsequent expenditures on it is not treason or cowardice or turning ourselves to the UN or weakness or capitulation but a recognition of the vitality and flexibility of American entrepreneurship in the face of actual threats (and the money saved can be used to secure that vitality and flexibility) and the fact that the goodwill of America's friends until W's belligerence and bullying meant that should the US have to act militarily there will be plenty of assistance because people would recognize it as a good fight;
...they will have lost the ability to show the people where the current GOP really stands, that the Democrats have thought things through and have the best interests at heart of the people as individual Americans and as the collective known as America, and that they truly represent a break from the past AND are the way forward.
In short, while none of the policy prescriptions listed above are make-or-break items (nor is the list above anywhere near exhaustive), I have problems with the leading Democratic contenders and the general leadership of the Democratic Party and will continue to have problems unless they are able to speak forcefully to the centrist platforms that are the core of the Democratic party rather than claim the center is somewhere between the current GOP and the vast majority in America.