The Race for the White House is in Full Swing

Melvin Parker
May 11, 2008
Filed under News

The race for the White House is in full swing and there has been no shortage of controversy surrounding the candidates.

In 2007, there were nine Democratic, 12 Republican, and 14 candidates from other political parties running for the post of President of the United States… and then there were three. The year 2007 started out to be promising for the eager 35 politicians who dreamed of becoming the United States’ next president, but due to their lack of popularity, inability to persuade the American public, or controversy surrounding their campaigns, they dropped off one by one.

The days of “Honest Abe, referring to the honesty of President Abraham Lincoln, have not been a part of the White House for centuries and each election seems to produce candidates worse than their predecessors. Dating back to the controversy surrounding our third president Thomas Jefferson, who is claimed to have fathered children with Sally Hemings (an African American slave owned by Jefferson), there has been no shortage of controversial issues. Today we have president George W. Bush and the Iraq war that has the United States at the top of the most hated countries in the world because it is speculated that George W. Bush entered the war in revenge for his father George H. Bush and not for weapons of mass destruction. Not to mention his association with other major disasters that have tainted the American public’s view of their Commander in Chief. Haliburton, the 2002 United States steel tariff, the Niger uranium forgeries, and the NSA call database are just a few of the many issues that George W. Bush has been involved with that have voters taking a closer look at the candidates running for the White House.

Here we are again, faced with the choice of electing the leader of one of the world’s most powerful nations and there doesn’t appear to be a quality candidate in site. Hillary Clinton has been associated with shady characters such as Norman Hsu who is currently serving time for fraud, John McCain has been sued by the Democratic National Committee for violating federal spending limits for his campaign, and there has been no shortage of accusations thrown at Illinois Senator Barack Obama. His association with the outspoken pastor Jeremiah Wright and his links to 1960′s radical William Ayers, have not helped his campaign and the way it is viewed by the public. With that being said, is there a quality candidate in the bid for the White House or is the American public being forced to choose between the lesser of two evils?

My opinion is the latter of the two. I do not believe that there is a quality candidate running for the White House. While Hillary Clinton has without a doubt done some great things during her political career, I don’t think that she is qualified to run an entire country. Her track record in New York has not been exceptional, and there appears to be more hype behind her speeches than substance. From day one of her campaign, the strategy of choice was to attack others rather than present her views and let the public decide for themselves.

Republican Senator John McCain is an American hero because of his exemplary record as a Navy pilot during the Vietnam war, but he has used that ticket one too many times to win nominations during his political career. His blunt style of politics has won the support of many conservative voters and pushed him to the front of the run for the White House as the Republican party nominee. But for the last twenty years, John McCain has made the headlines for some of his less popular choices such as his opposition to Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday. Although McCain was exonerated for his involvement with the Keating Five scandal, his choice to be involved in the Saving & Loan (S&L) scandal was one of his more memorable political blunders. He also supported the Gramm-Ruddman bill which ordered huge cuts in public education, anti-povery, and health care programs in favor of tax cuts for major corporations and the wealthy.

Illinois Senator Barack Obama appears to have come out of nowhere to become the front runner for the Democratic parties Presidential candidate, but does he have what it takes to be the United States next President? No one can argue the accomplishments that Barack Obama has achieved during his lifetime. He was the first African American elected as president of the Harvard Law Review, where he received his law degree, and possesses a degree in political science from Columbia University. Senator Obama has been on the fast track to success during his political career, but doesn’t have the experience to run an entire country. He was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996 and in 2000 failed to win the Democratic primary for the House of Representatives seat. In 2003, he held the position of Health and Human Services Committee, and landed a position on the US Senate in 2004. But despite his incredible rise to fame during the presidential election, Obama has not faced any real issues. My thoughts are that the White House is not the testing ground for an up and coming political superstar.

Again I ask, is there a quality candidate in the bid for the White House or is the American public being forced to choose between the lesser of evils? What’s your opinion?