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My Letter to Sherrod Brown
Submitted by trubbledIndy on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 7:11pm.
Mr. Brown: I had the good fortune to hear your interview on NPR this morning. As usual, you made me proud to be an Ohioan and one who supported and voted for you and will again.
I understand from the interview that you are a Super Delegate to the Democratic Party. I also understand that you have not made a public announcement as to whom you will support in the upcoming primary.
I understand all hoopla surrounding Barack Obama. He's articulate and fresh and delivers a very positive message but in my humble opinion, he isn't ready to be president just yet. He has great ideas but no real plan for how he will implement them.
He seems to have garnered the support of David Wilhelm which surprises and disappoints me a great deal. I believe people are supporting Mr. Obama for the wrong reasons. I believe he has a bright future but I think he needs more experience before making those high impact decisions that will affect us all.
It is my hope that in spite of the media hype and the current momentum of the Obama campaign, that you will look beyond all that and give Mrs. Clinton some serious consideration for your support. Her experience and pragmatism are going to be a great asset to this nation, especially when it comes to foreign affairs issues. Our country needs healing and we all desire change but change should be practical.
To put it bluntly, I have serious concerns about how foreign leaders will react to Mr. Obama. I mean its really nice to win a Grammy when your running for president and have Oprah Winfrey show up for you at rallies, but none of that will equate to much when you are seated across the table from some 80 year old world leader in some small country somewhere trying to negotiate an agreement of some sort. Will that leader take Obama seriously? We need to be taken seriously by the rest of the world.
Its imperative that the next president be Positive, Firm, Fair, Practical and have a good understanding for how the system works. There will be no time once the next leader takes office to learn the system. Mrs. Clinton will be able to hit the ground running.
Thank you for your time and for the wonderful job you are doing in the senate.
Obama or Clinton - let's actually examine the record
Our country does need healing - and it is odd that you think Mrs. Clinton can provide it. She was a strong advocate of going to war in Iraq - because it seemed politically popular and expedient at the time - she had access to intelligence reports which showed that there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction - but she went ahead and voted for it. As we all know Obama had the good judgement and moral courage to stand up (in the middle of his race for the US Senate, when there was a lot at stake for him) and speak out against it. Pointing out that we should concentrate our efforts on Afghanistan and focus on getting Al Quaeda, rather than getting into a 2 front war - and not winning either.
I would estimate that most world leaders are just as close in age to Mrs. Clinton than they are to Barack Obama . None come to mind who are 80 - so there is no need to worry about that. I also think that there is a greater risk of a woman not being taken seriously than a man - this is not a good thing - nor a reason for supporting Obama - it is just a fact that most cultures outside of the US are less progressive than we are. (I have lived abroad in Asia and Europe - and have some first hand experience in that matter).
You are right that our next president should be positive, firm, fair, and practical. I challenge you to look up Senator Clinton's legislative history and compare it to Senator Obama's. As Joe Biden pointed out in earlier debates - the "experience" argument is a myth (unless you are counting Bill's) - She has not sponsored and passed into law a single significant piece of legislature. Senator Obama on the other hand, in half the time has accomplished much much more:
Lugar-Obama Act to decrease nuclear and conventional weapons proliferation around the world.
Coburn-Obama Transparency Act transparency in federal spending, found at httP://www.usaspending.gov
Cosponsored the Healthy Kids Act of 2007 and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) Reauthorization Act of 2007 to ensure that more American children have affordable health care coverage.
Obama worked to pass a number of laws in Illinois and Washington to improve the health of women. His accomplishments include creating a task force on cervical cancer, providing greater access to breast and cervical cancer screenings, and helping improve prenatal and premature birth services.
As a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Obama passed legislation to improve care and slash red tape for our wounded warriors recovering at places like Walter Reed. He passed laws to help homeless veterans and offered an innovative solution to prevent at-risk veterans from falling into homelessness. Obama passed legislation to stop a VA review of closed PTSD cases that could have led to a reduction in veterans' benefits. He passed an amendment to ensure that all service members returning from Iraq are properly screened for traumatic brain injuries
Congo: Obama and Leahy successfully passed an amendment to provide $13 million in assistance to the DRC for military reform and election assistance. The bill also provided the the US policy is to oppose and fight against the rape and killings of women that is a particular horror there. Obama has recently sent a letter to Sec. Rice demanding a report of their efforts there.
Darfur
Introduced Patriot Employer Act, August 2007, to reward companies for keeping jobs in the US
As a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, Obama helped pass legislation in the recent improvements to the Higher Education Act to increase the maximum Pell Grant award to $5,10.
Obama passed legislation with Senator Jim Talent (R-MO) to give gas stations a tax credit for installing E85 ethanol refueling pumps.
Obama sponsored an amendment that became law providing $40 million for commercialization of a combined flexible fuel vehicle/hybrid car within five years.
Congressional ethics legislation, called the Gold Standard of ethics reform, passed by Obama and Feingold that ending subsidized corporate jet travel, mandating disclosure of lobbyists' bundling of contributions, and enacting strong new restrictions of lobbyist-sponsored trips. The Washington Post wrote in an editorial, “The final package is the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet.”
Obama has introduced and helped pass bipartisan legislation to limit the abuse of no-bid federal contracts.
Please take a look beyond all the spin of Mrs. Clinton's campaign and examine her actual record. Compare and contrast it to Senator Obama's - we all need to do this - when considering who will make the better president.