Obama Or Clinton?

Let's air the arguments on the Dish, shall we? Instead of the horse-race crap in the MSM, let's see if we can actually isolate what is truly at stake in choosing between these two candidates. I ran a pro-Clinton email last Saturday. Here's a pro-Obama one:

There are two ways to win an election -- present voters with simple arguments that they can accept or have a candidate that reassures them. I am worried that my candidate, Obama, is putting too much faith in the American voter and presenting them with the old academic Democratic arguments about the constitution. But my worry is balanced by the fact that he is the most trustworthy candidate and the American voter, especially those in the Midwest, have an excellent sense for honesty and trustworthiness.

Bill and Hillary have an apt understanding of the American voter; they know that the voters will reject these academic arguments about the constitution. Her challenge, though, is that she lacks the "character" that Barack naturally has. That is the difference between Barack and Hillary and why Republicans who tend to emphasize character are attracted to Barack.

One of the fundamental reasons I prefer Obama to Clinton is that he still seems like a human being. I've watched and listened to him as closely as I can these past few months and he still answers questions as if he genuinely wants to figure out the right answer. She reflexively gives the political response - without even pausing. Everything is calculated. Nothing is real - from her laugh to her finely honed policy positions, designed to attract as many micro-votes as her pollsters can detect. He can still actually weigh the balance between opportunism and idealism in politics; she has long since fused the two in her mind, so that anything that can win her power is, in her mind, good for the rest of us.

We cannot trust her. We can still trust him. He hasn't been turned into the machine that national politics has turned her into. In the perilous days ahead, we desperately need a president again whom we can trust. He wins that argument. Which is why it is so vital for America that he win this contest against the increasingly ruthless Clinton machine.

(Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty.)