The US Presidential Election I - Why Americans Refused Hillary Clinton

Probably many people could expect that result at the time of new year. June 3, 2008, Senetor Barack Obama obtained enough delegates to ensure the nomination of the Democrat candidate for the President of the United States, winning over Senator Hillary Clinton, who had been rumored to be the most potential Democrat candidate since early time. The reason for the result is obvious, taking it into consideration what kind of leadership the United States needs now.


The George W. Bush Administration started the Iraq War and it has been prolonged for five years contrary to President Bush's expectation. As a result, there has arisen a serious crack between Democrats and Republicans. The original American political style is a straight and bipartisan discuss at least on diplomacy and national security however severely Democrats and Republican conflict with each other on domestic affairs. However, the traditional style has broken since the Republican Bush administration started the Iraq War forcibly dividing public opinion and it reached a deadlock. Now there is a serious conflictions which can be described only as emotional between Democrats and Republicans. The situation where both sides do not even bend their ear to each other's opinions is a serious crisis in the US politics because the essence of democracy is a honest and straight discussion.


What we need in such a time is the leadership which can reunite and restore the United States to the original state. Senator John McCain, the Republican presumptive nominee, and Senator Barack Obama, the Democrat presumptive nominee, both have the makings of such kind of the leadership. Senator McCain is famous for his stance as a maverick in the Republican Party; he is the most straight and honest critic to the Republican Administration and he dares to bring a bill in cooperation with a Democrat for what he thinks is right.


Senator Obama has accomplished the attitude not to utilize the negative campaigning during the presidential primaries though it has been proved to be a effecive in past presidential elections. It is a famous story that when some member of his election staff used the negative campaigning against Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Obama scolded him furiously. Also during the 2004 United States Presidential Election, he delivered a kenote address at the Democratic National Convention saying "There's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America." to win many American's sympathy. As you can see, both Senator McCain and Senator Obama are the statesmen whom the United States needs now. It is natural that the Los Angeles Times announced its support for Senator McCain, as the Republican candidate, and for Senator Obama, as the Democrat candidate, at the time of February 1, 2008.


On the other hand, how about former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee, who was regarded as a fly-by-night candidate at first but later put up a good fight and was flattered as "Huckbee sensation", and Senator Hillary Clinton, who had been regarded as the most potential candidate for President since early time? The reason for Huckabee's good fight was just that his extreme Christian right stance which rejected induced abortion, same-sex marriage, and even Darwin's theory of evolution was supported by the most conservative Republicans. Also, Senator Hillary Clinton is a such politician that mercilessly criticizes those who have different opinion and asserts herself aggressively. Therefore there are many people who dislike her completely while she has some enthusiastic supporters, like George W. Bush. After all, Mike Huckbee and Hillary Clinton are both the politician such that cannot reunite the United States but may divide it further. At least, the United States does not need them now.


It was because Theodore C. Sorensen, a member of the Partnership for a Secure America, or PSA, announced his support for Barack Obama at the time of July, 2007 that I believed firmly that Barack Obama would win over Hillary Clinton. PSA is the American bipartisan organization on diplomacy and national security which was founded in 2005 to restore the bipartisan cooperation which had been fading away since the Iraq War, whose co-chair and co-founder is former Representative Lee Hamiliton, who served as the Democratic co-chair of the Iraq Study Group. The fact that A member of the PSA, which aims for birartisan cooperation, stands for Barack Obama means that he is hoped to unify the United States by the professionals in diplomacy and national security.


Also, Theodore Sorensen had been one of the most influential John F. Kennedy's right-arm even called "JFK's alter ego" since JFK was a Senator. He also worked energeticly as the campaign strategist for Robert F. Kennedy during his campaign for President in 1968. The present United States is said to be confronted by the biggest crisis since the Vietnam War. But it has the past which it should model after. In 1968, just 40 years ago, Robert F. Kennedy run for President calling for reunification of the nation which had been divided thgouth the mud of Vietnam and he won a vast range of support.


There is an episode which shows RFK's courage. It was April 1968 when Martin Luther King, Jr., the gratest leader in the American civil rights movement, was shot and killed. RFK was going to deliver a speech for his primary campaign at the black town ship in Indianapolis. However, there was arising a hatred toward whites among blacks because of the assassination of MLK. Police and supporters advice him to cancel the speech but he ignored it and started an impromptu speech.


"What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.

So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love--a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.

We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we've had difficult times in the past; and we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.

But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land."


At that night, Indianapolis kept calm while other cities all over the United States were caught up in riots.

He was to be shot and killed when he was about to obtain the nomination for the Democratic candidate but it was said that his overwhelming victory in the presidential election in November was obvious. Theodore Sorensen had been watching RFK and now he stands for Barack Obama.

Not only Theodore Sorensen. It was Kennedy family's movement to support Barack Obama that I especially paid attention to. The top is one of the Kennedy Brother, Senator Edward Kennedy, who is the exponent of Democratic liberal. And the others are Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of JFK, and Maria Shriver, a niece of JFK and RFK (also the wife of Govenor Arnold Schwarzenegger). It was because they saw the quality common to JFK and RFK in Barack Obama that they, who know the spirit of the Kennedy Brother well, moved to support him.

The trigger of the movement by Kennedy family was that Hillary Clinton defamed Barack Obama with her husband Bill Clinton during the primary campaign. It ended in her defeat.