Obama v. Edwards
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| Also listed in: Arlington Young Democrats | Barack Obama 2008: An Honest Government, A Hopeful Future | Edwards For 2008! | Organized Labor | Universal Health Care | Young Professional Dems |
So in order to get the conversation going...
And so that I can actually begin to make up my mind,
Who should I support? Obama or Edwards?
What do I care about?
Leadership: The next President must have the capacity to shift the moral consensus in this country. They must be able to not only mobilize our base but inspire the radical center to support steps toward basic fairness in our economy and society
Healthcare: We must have every man woman and child covered. But the plan has to be passable.
Workers Rights: Union workers have fought and died to make our country more just. The next President can do a lot to fight the atmosphere of fear that pervades a workplace anytime someone mentions union.
Foreign Policy: We must manage our pullout from Iraq in such a way that the American people do not force complete military disengagement from the region. We must win in Afghanistan and we must stabilize the Gulf enough to avoid economic catatrophe or regional war.
Those are my issues. I await some creative responses from my fellow dems.
And so that I can actually begin to make up my mind,
Who should I support? Obama or Edwards?
What do I care about?
Leadership: The next President must have the capacity to shift the moral consensus in this country. They must be able to not only mobilize our base but inspire the radical center to support steps toward basic fairness in our economy and society
Healthcare: We must have every man woman and child covered. But the plan has to be passable.
Workers Rights: Union workers have fought and died to make our country more just. The next President can do a lot to fight the atmosphere of fear that pervades a workplace anytime someone mentions union.
Foreign Policy: We must manage our pullout from Iraq in such a way that the American people do not force complete military disengagement from the region. We must win in Afghanistan and we must stabilize the Gulf enough to avoid economic catatrophe or regional war.
Those are my issues. I await some creative responses from my fellow dems.
Health care: Barack Obama also believes that we must have every man woman and child covered and that the plan has to be passable. A comprehensive UHC Plan is something he takes very seriously. He will not announce a plan until he has met with and received input from all who will be effected by the plan , the American people, the employers and the industry are important factors in his decision. Obama is not concerned with being the fist. He is more concerned with being the most effective.
Workers Rights: Barack Obama has a strong record as a legislator on this. That record speaks for itself. Barak Obama can be trusted to push for strengthening American Unions and as President , will continue to push for policies that do just that. He has always recognized the importance of Unions and does not shy away from his position.
Foreign Policy: In addition to what I covered in the first part, Barack Obama can be trusted not to engage in what he calls "dumb wars". He does not oppose all wars but understands that our nation must do what it takes to protect ourselves, without creating an unnecessary risk to this nations National Security. He has promised to bring our troops home from Iraq, deal with Afghanistan and strengthen our Military here at home. Although Barack Obama has opposed the Iraq War from the start ,his policy and actions in the Senate demonstrates that he is willing to take actions that bring the Iraq War to an end while securing the safety of our Troops. He has introduced the Iraq War De-Escalation Act ; a bill that would have began removing troops in May of this year with a full deployment by March of 2008. Many aspects of his competent and well thought plan have made it's way into the new Reid/Feingold Bill.
Link
some other issues:
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Withdrawal from Iraq,
Keep all volunteer militay - no draft
Net Neutrality
Preditory Lending reform
Campaign reform, public financed
College for those who want it
and more.
Barack is my Senator and needs more time to be the President. He has great rhetoric but needs time to mature. We need more than hope to get out of this Bush mess. We need concrete plans and a forceful leader who can bring the country along.
Edwards has specific plans for the issues that you hold dear. He has been working hard on Poverty and Work issues for years and has recently worked for Minimum Wage hikes and for Union workers. When I heard him speak in February in Illinois he told us about a hotel chain that has hotels in Boston where the workers are in a union and have a good salary and full benefits VS a hotel in the same chain in Florida where the workers (mostly housekeepers) work for $6.25 an hour and have no benefits. Needless to say they are not in a union. He doesn't want workers to work full time and live in Poverty. He has recently posted a strong message of reform for the tax system and has proposed so many specific policies that you will need to go to johnedwards.com to read about them. If you compare rhetorical hopeful ideas from Barack with the same goals and specific steps to get there from Edwards it will be clear. Let's all watch the debate on April 26th from South Carolina. Listen for the specifics - see what you think then. Mary