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| No | 73% | 58 votes | Total: 80 votes | |
| Yes | 27% | 22 votes |
No
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Add to FavoritesPrevious to the comments made by Hillary Clinton's staff, Obama had already openly discussed his former drug use. He used is past experiences as a way to pass on knowledge to younger generations. Obama's statement has always been that while nothing tragic happened to him as a result of the drug use, he found it to be "a waste of time" that had only hindered him from achieving his true potential.
The Clinton staffer didn't discover anything new, he simply hinted at the idea that Obama's decision to be open and honest about his past could hurt him in the general election and therefore it would not be wise to put him forward as the Democratic nominee. I personally find it horrifying that someone being honest about having made such a benign mistake could count as a strike against him, but others are certainly entitled to their opinion.
However, even if the Clinton staffer was revealing new information, I don't think it would have hurt Democratic viability in the general election for the simple fact that anything that gets revealed now in the primary season is one more thing that can't come out as an October surprise. The candidates have months to spin any past transgressions that are revealed right now, and given the short attention span of most Americans when it comes to politics, I'm pretty sure that anything that comes out now is old news by November.
What's amazing to me is that no one is worried about what Huckabee's fascist comments from the 1990s, Giuliani's tax-payer sponsored affairs, Ron Paul's past of documented racism, and Romney's cruelty to animals and opposition to the separation of church and state will do to Republican viability in the general election. You simply can't say that there is a liberal bias in the media if none of those things are receiving as much play as Obama being open about doing something in college that is typical of your average college student.
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Yes
What the United States needs is not politicians who are greedy for sensationalist headlines or for quick boosts in the polls; what this nation needs is a sense of solidarity. There are far too many divisions in American society today, Americans do not need two politicians, who both have so much potential to do some good for their people, who argue back and forth over trivial issues as if they were children. Politics these days has seen too much mudslinging and blaming; we need politicians on both sides of the isle to come together for the common good of our nation. Imagine what the great leaders of our past like Franklin Delano Roosevelt would have say if they could see the slump into which American politics has fallen. It is time for our elected officials to take responsibility, behave like intelligent adults, and worry about issues that effect the nation as a whole.
That said, the fact of the matter is, often times politicians do stoop to personal attacks to gain favor or influence or to discredit opponents. For some, this is an effective tactic; any good politician knows that if you can discredit your opponent, you will have the upper hand. What is lacking in this particular view of political strategy is any sort of moral decency. Sniping back and forth between politicians degrades our political institutions and or political system as a whole. The Democratic Party has the potential to bring about some much needed change after the fiasco the current administration has led us into. Presenting a united front is crucial for the Democrats if they want to win this upcoming election. None of the candidates can afford to waste any time bickering back and forth between themselves. They should be out there, with the people, debating the issues and giving the American public the chance to make an informed decision about who they wish to be the next leader of this country. What senators Clinton, Obama and the rest of the candidates from both parties need to realize is this: what matters at the end of the day is not what these candidates has done in their youth, what matters is what they will actually do to make this nation a better place.
Learn more about this author, Nils Herdelin.
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