A Fierce Fight for the Democratic Nomination

Shortly after delivering perhaps the best speech of the Democratic candidates at the Iowa Jefferson Jackson Dinner, a Washington Post/ABC News Poll showed Obama leading in Iowa with 30% of the voters compared to Clinton with 26% and Edwards with 22%. Because of the margin of error, Obama and Clinton are basically tied in Iowa. In addition, Obama is tied with Hilary for Democratic women’s votes in Iowa and leads by 50% (over Clinton) as the most responsible and honest candidate. In addition, in New Hampshire, another important primary, while Clinton’s voter percentage has decreased by 7% to 36%, Obama has maintained his second place standing loosing by 14% (vs. 23% in September). However, nationally Hillary leads Obama by 23%. Thus, we must ponder, can Obama actually win the Iowa primary, as well as those necessary to win the Democratic nomination over Hillary?

As Clinton and Obama diminish their gaps as the leaders of the Democratic Party nomination, their personal attacks and criticism between one another continue. As Clinton continues to attack Obama’s resume and political experience (or lack there of, as she and others claim) Obama criticizes Clinton’s portrayal of her own experience: “my understanding is she wasn’t treasury secretary in the Clinton administration. I don’t know exactly what experience she’s claiming.” On the other hand, Clinton undermines Obama’s assertion of his foreign experience. She finds it ridiculous that Obama’s experience living abroad when he was 10 years old would help him face present foreign policy issues as President. However, others, including Senator Biden, fellow Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, believes “[Obama’s living abroad] is his strongest [foreign policy] credential.” Also, Obama has attacked Clinton “[who] was a cheerleader for NAFTA for more than a decade;” then as soon as she announced her run for Presidency, abandoned this support. Obama condemns Clinton’s “flip-flopping” (Clinton also originally voted for the War in Iraq); Obama asserts, "I realize that changing your position to suit the politics of the moment might be smart campaign tactics but isn't the kind of strong, principled leadership America needs right now.” In addition, this week, Obama condemned Clinton and Edward’s plans for mandating universal health coverage without details on pricing and enforcement. Other candidates, including those on the Republican side, have continued their criticisms. Romney points out that if Obama is President, Obama will leave Iraq and the country will become a “safe-haven” for Al-Qaeda. On an interesting note, the chief Republican Presidential candidate Giuliani ironically, praised Obama for his honesty when telling New Hampshire students that he used drugs in high school. Lastly, Novak’s claim that Clinton’s campaign possessed “scandalous information” about Obama was denied by her administration.

This week Obama proposed many great plans to be implemented if he becomes President. Obama announced that he will improve community colleges, as well as make these schools free for the majority of Americans through an American Opportunity Tax Credit. Obama desires to make other colleges more attainable to Americans by facilitating the application process and increasing the amount giving for financial aid. In addition, Obama proposed a $18 billion education plan to fix Bush’s “No Child Left Behind,” through supporting universal pre-K programs and increasing teacher mentoring programs for example. Obama criticized Senators Clinton and Edwards for not allotting enough funds to the No Child Left Behind Act and not sufficiently protecting or helping students. Professors at Berkeley, Stanford, and Nobel Laureates for Economics have praised Obama’s education plan. Lastly, Obama criticized Bush for claiming that Musharraf “hasn’t crossed the line” and “truly believes in democracy.” Obama believes that a portion of our aid to Pakistan should only be given if Musharraf holds free and just elections and abandons his country’s “state of emergency”. In addition, Obama blames Cheney (ironically his relative) for America’s oil problems.

Hillary's Hits Help Obama

This week Obama moved on the offensive against the Democratic front runner, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York. Thursday, during the Democratic debate in Las Vegas, Nevada, Senator Obama accused Senator Clinton of neglecting to answer concretely her opinions on foreign policy, healthcare and Iraq. Earlier in the week at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Iowa, one third of those in attendance were said to be Obama supporters. One of Hillary’s team members, Mark Penn, affronted that Obama’s followers “look[ed] like Facebook…only a few of their people look like they could vote in any state” fueling a rapid response from the voting eligible youth ready to cast their ballots for Obama. If Obama can motivate the young Americans to flock to the polls, he will have access to a large percentage of votes usually untapped by any candidate. After Obama’s and the medias attacks on Hillary in the past few weeks, her lead in a CNN national survey dropped from 30% to only 19%. These numbers bode well for Obama, who seems to be gaining ground from second place. However, Barack Obama only had the support of 22%, while Hillary Clinton had support of the 37% of the citizens polled in New Hampshire—a very influential state due to vast media coverage and momentum by winning candidates in the primary season. Another poll demonstrated that Barack Obama had more support than four major Republican party contenders in Missouri with 46% of the vote. Interestingly, there have been “rumors about rumors” claiming that Clinton has found some damaging material about Obama but “prudent[ly]… decided not to use it.”

Although not present for the recent senatorial vote on how to proceed with Iran, Obama reassures his possible constituents that he does not support military action. Also, the Presidential candidate released his new plan for technology as a means of differentiating himself from the other politicians fighting for the Democratic nomination. He proposed creating a government website where anyone could watch the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as setting up a webpage for comments from the American public on pending legislation. Additionally, he assured that new computer software would come equipped with parental controls so that the government would not need to censor the content of the internet. Senator Obama introduced another new policy this week that promised a path to citizenship for “all immigrants who earn their college degrees in the United States.” Based on his multiple announcements of more viewpoint coupled with attacks on Hillary and her dip in popularity, Obama continues to gain support as the race heads into the holidays.