Desperate Times...

As the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures, and Hillary Clinton is in those times, and taking those sorts of measures.

She held a press conference this morning roasting a campaign mailing from Barack Obama , saying it contained 'lies' about her positions on NAFTA and a portion of her Healthcare plan. She compared Obama to Karl Rove, of all people, and said he, not her, was playing the dirty politics of the past, and betraying his message of positive hope and change.

Isn't this the same woman that accused Mr. Obama of plagiarism last week, trying to drag him through the muck before the all-important March 4 primaries in Ohio and Texas?

Baseless plagiarism charges aside, the first basic problem Hillary has seems to be that the flyer states she supported NAFTA when it was signed in the early 90s, but doesn't now. This is completely true, as Hillary was a whole-hearted supporter when she was First Lady. She says now that NAFTA needs to be reformed, and as a Canadian, I couldn't agree more. The middle class, blue-collar workers especially, have been getting ripped by this treaty for around two decades, and I think it needs a serious revisiting. But back in the 90s, Hillary wasn't running for President, with blue-collars as her core base. She sure is now though, and now that she needs that support, NAFTA is evil. Sure wish she had felt that way in the first place.

Second is that Clinton says her Healthcare plan is being misrepresented. It has to deal with the fact that her plan forces people to pay for insurance even if they can't afford it, and will garnishee wages should the insurance not be bought out of free will. This, also, is true, and something Hillary Clinton nodded along with just this past Thursday, during the Democratic debate. I don't think penalizing people for not having the financial security is the right way to go, and falls along the same lines as the 'No Child Left Behind' program, where schools are fined and punished for not having test scores high enough. You don't penalize to make the situation better, you step in and make the situation better so you don't have to penalize in the first place, which is what

Barack is doing by attacking the prices of insurance so it is more affordable for regular people. He states that the problem is not that people don't want to have insurance; it’s that they can't afford it, and if it is more affordable, people will cover themselves adequately.

I am completely for universal healthcare, and as a Canadian, I do see it as an inalienable right, but it has to be a slow progression, and they can't just implement a Canadian-style system one day out of the blue. I think Obama's plan gets to the core issue, and Hillary's is pointed towards saying that everyone has coverage, even if it makes life harder on the average American to do so.

My own opinions aside, I have enclosed a link here to a video of the speech Hillary made this morning, so everyone can see what desperate measures in desperate times really look like.

You may have to watch a short ad first, and the video is about a minute and a half.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/23/clinton.mailings/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

The Final Democratic Debate before Texas and Ohio

The last Democratic debate before the huge, monumental primaries in Texas and Ohio, that will likely decide who will be the nominee to go against John McCain this fall.

I've watched the entire debate so far, just past the hour mark now, and I have to say, Barack Obama is hammering Hillary Clinton to the ground. He is coming off inspiring and rational, and she is coming off as petty and divisive. This is purely my view, of course, but there is this sense, watching the debate, that we are all watching a man that is going to take on John McCain and win in November, and a woman who is desperately trying to revive something that's clearly already dead.

Hillary Clinton has tried to put a smile on the entire time, even when she was booed by the Texas crowd, but she is desperately grasping at straws, and it's showing more than ever.

As a quick example, the issue of Obama's alleged plagarism of a Deval Patrick speech was brought up. Barack, in his few minutes, explained logically that it was two lines, which were given to him by Patrick, and that the issue itself was pointless in the face of so many other issues, and to harp on it was part of the divisive politics of the past. Hillary got her response and did nothing but hammer at him for plagarism. Petty, pointless, and divisive.

Again, as they are debating healthcare, Barack is laying out his plan in a rational, coherent way, and Hillary is nitpicking and seeming to become very angry up on stage. Both candidates have completely overridden a question about experience and have returned to a debate about healthcare. They are both very passionate and into this debate, which I love, but all in all, so far, Barack Obama has a distinct advantage, and Hillary Clinton is grasping desperately to something that simply isn't there any longer.

I'll be back later on to recap the debate in full...