Great Expectations 2008

Steve and Vanessa Lopez

Like many couples our voter registration is not the same. Steve is a registered Independent and I am registered Green. Last weekend we were at my sister's house and we began to discuss politics. My sister is an Independent, but she said that she is going to register as a Democrat, so that she can vote for Senator Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) in the Democratic primary in Maryland. Our reaction was why Clinton? She said because Hillary has the experience to become President of the United States of America (U.S.), and Senator Barack Obama (Ill.) just doesn't have the experience needed to be President. My sister said if we elect Hillary, she will get us out of Iraq, and she can change things.

We asked her why she thought Clinton's experience makes her better prepared to be President, and why Clinton's advisory role as First Lady makes her more qualified than Barack Obama, or the other candidates to be President. Personally we don't see how Clinton's experience better prepares her to be President. Yeah, she isn't as bad as Bush, but since when did the status quo candidate represent change? Furthermore, if the decision is about experience, then Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich is the only Democratic candidate who has substantive executive experience.

It seems like in the 2008 Presidential election, experience is being confused for leadership. Leadership should be the key criteria in this election. Not just talking about it, but actually getting results.

The Lopez family has great expectations of our next President. We want someone who is going to get the U.S. and our son out of Iraq. Not someone who will get us into Iran, while continuing to enrich Haliburton, Blackwater, and other corporate contributors. We want a leader who is passionate about health care, and cares about making sure all of us have health insurance, and access to health care. Not one who will continue to allow insurance and pharmaceutical executives to hijack the Department of Health and Human Services.

We want a President who is going to implement a plan to strengthen the solvency of Social Security. Not one who will turn the Social Security trust fund into a financial smorgasbord for Wall Street. Barack Obama during one Democratic Debate said it best when it comes to experience, "Nobody had more experience than Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, and many of the people on this stage who were among those who authorized the war."

If the Democratic nomination is Clinton, Steve is not sure how he will vote. I will vote for the Green Party nominee, unless Dennis Kucinich is the Democratic party nominee. I am used to hearing from Democrats that people like her are the reason we have had to endure the Bush rule for the past seven years. Nonsense! We love the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, but some of the other so called Democrats might as well be Republicans.

It takes two to tango, and George W. Bush wasn't able to send our kids off to war without Democratic support. Bush may have signed the legislation, but he didn't get the Patriot and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Acts passed by himself. Bush alone didn't get Attorney General Mukasey appointed single handedly. If Democrats want the liberal vote, they need to nominate candidates that reflect liberal values, not Republican posers. If liberal candidates are elected, they need to carry out what the people send them to D.C. to do, which isn't whine about how they didn't have enough votes while attending corporate cocktail parties.