by Tommy Vaughan

Created on: March 11, 2007   Last Updated: March 19, 2008

It bothers me that so much attention is being paid to the physical attributes of the two Democratic front-runners for the 2008 presidential nomination. But that may simply be because neither of them has much of consequence to say.

The question is "Will Americans vote for a black man or white woman?" Under the right circumstances, I'd have to say, "Sure, they would." Ultimately though, I don't think these are the right ones.

When I say this, understand that I would like nothing more than for the Democrats to take the White House back in 2008. I just think that, once again, the Democrats are opting for style over substance, and are using all the wrong criteria to pick a candidate.

Answer me this. Would Barack Obama be getting half the attention he's getting from the media and the elite Hollywood donors if he were a white guy? The answer is clearly no. Obama is a first-term, junior senator from Illinois, with no major accomplishments under his belt, aside from winning the seat. The knock on John Edwards back in 2004 was that he was a first-term, junior senator. So what's the difference?

With regards to Hillary, the situation is much more complex. Rather than having the relative luxury of being an unknown commodity like Obama, Hillary is rather well-known and, in many cases, reviled. Hillary also seems to have John Kerry disease. Rather than getting up there and positively asserting what she believes, she holds her finger up to gauge the prevailing political winds, and then makes a statement. She tries to be all things to all people, and only comes across looking calculating, conniving, and manipulative. As a politician, she's no Bill Clinton.

I would vote for a black man or a white woman. But until either of these two demonstrate to me that there is some reason I should vote for them, I can't say that either of these would be the one I'd vote for. I suspect that, come 2008, many more Americans will feel the same way.

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