Hillary Clinton issued an eloquent call for party unity at the Democratic National Convention this week, asking all Democrats to unite behind the candidacy of Barack Obama. She really had no choice; anything less than a full-throated endorsement could cost the party the election in November. And Senator Clinton is nothing if not a loyal Democrat.
As an early and avid Clinton supporter and lifelong Democrat, I appreciate her putting party interests ahead of personal aspirations. Yet that is also why I am not fully comfortable with her call for unity: I have trouble showing Senator Obama any more loyalty than he himself has shown either to Senator Clinton or to the goals and ideals of the Democratic Party.
Party unity asks me to:
Trust in the nebulous promise of change, and then to hope that everything will work out alright;
Overlook the candidate's lackluster legislative track record at the state and federal levels;
Believe the Senator's lack of executive experience will prove irrelevant to him as Chief Executive;
Forbear the absence of specifics in Obama's economic, healthcare, and other key proposals;
Indulge positions-in-flux on issues ranging from Iraq to FISA to NAFTA to public campaign financing, corporate tax cuts, and more.
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