by Gideon MacLeish

Created on: March 14, 2007   Last Updated: March 19, 2008

As the Democratic field seems to be narrowing to Hillary vs. Obama, many Democratic voters are finding themselves trying to play the PC game and choose between their favorite minority. But the answer for the nation is not black, white, male, or female, but who can get the job done.

Hillary Clinton's main asset is also her main liability. She is a known factor. Having spent 8 years as the First Lady, she is certainly aware of most of the issues she will have to deal with, and she has likely formed strong opinions of what she will do if elected. She's also the wife of one of the more popular presidents of the last half century, and that will certainly weigh in on many voters' decisions.

But as popular as Bill Clinton was, he was also scandalized, and that is not going to quickly pass over in many voter's minds. And Bill Clinton votes do not necessarily translate over into Hillary Clinton votes, or vice versa. Unlike the Gores, who played second fiddle to the Clintons for those eight years, Bill and Hillary are not seen as having a warm relationship, but rather a business one, and the image of a passionless woman president may turn off many American voters.

Obama, on the other hand, is an unknown. He's very popular, because he's very warm; warm enough for some pretty diehard Republicans to cast him as a "moderate", even though he falls fairly far to the left. But he's got the kind of charisma that can carry him through to the Presidency, and, with rare exceptions (Richard Nixon comes to mind), Americans do not usually elect a president that they can't warm to. Hillary, in my opinion, is too cold to carry the day.

But is it a matter of male versus female where Hillary is concerned, or black versus white where Obama is concerned? I don't think so. For more than a dozen years, Republicans have stood ready to vote for a black president - if Colin Powell had run, I have little doubts he'd have won many staunch Republicans. And if Condi ran, I know a lot of diehard GOP faithful that would sport her likeness on the back of their pickups, right next to their NRA bumper stickers.

I believe Americans are ALWAYS ready for a president who can promise a vision they can support. And that while we may still stick somewhat to our past prejudices, they are quickly falling by the wayside. I believe that either Obama or Clinton could find their way into the White House if they speak the proper message, in the proper context.

But I'm still not voting for Hillary!

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