Terra Incognita

A Candidate by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet
Upon Dan's recommendation, I took SpeakOut.com's VoteMatch quiz to see how my social and economic views aligned with today's politcal players; in particular to see if I fit more in the Hillary camp or the Barack camp, or someone else's camp all together. I was also interested to see how this quiz differed from OkCupid's politics quiz. Just as I was a year and a half ago, and as I suspected, I'm still a Hillary girl and a "hard-core liberal". But my presidential vote is still up in the air. Besides my belief that it's way to early to be choosing sides, I'm genuinely concerned about the prospect of having another Clinton in the White House. This isn't any conservative concern, of course; it has nothing to do with the Clintons in particular. It has to do with my concern that our country is built on democratic principles, not some kind of impromptu monarchy where the persiency is passed from family member to family member. If Hillary is elected in '08, she'll be in office at least until 2012. That means an entire generation will have grown up with heads of state that are either Bush or Clinton. We don't need two "royal" families battling it out. While I don't have any solid reason to think that a monarchial torch-passing of this sort could have a ruinous influence on our conutry, it's raised a red flag for me. As the '08 primaries creep closer, I'll be looking for Hillary, Barack and the others to convince me of their worthiness. I refuse to be swayed by name, (Ba)rock stardom or pretty face.