The race for the Democratic nomination has gotten quite interesting; with John Edwards out of the race, we are left with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Barack Obama fighting for the remaining delegates to send to the national convention. Now, many people have been asking me, if I could vote, who would I vote for? For the past several months, the answer to that question for me was John Edwards, primarily for his stance on healthcare. But now, it looks like I have to choose someone else.

Since I haven't really been nitpicking, I haven't really seen any major differences between Clinton's and Obama's campaigns. However, I will now take the time to examine the two campaigns and see with whom to place my "vote."

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Hillary Clinton: The Potential First Female President

Now, being female, I am already leaning more toward Sen. Clinton. I would just like to point out though that I have nothing against African-Americans and that, in that sense, it would be great if Obama became president. Back to Clinton, though, what does she stand for? Well...

Restoring the Middle Class

One thing I saw that I liked about Clinton: she too sees that the average salary is not enough to pay for housing, healthcare, college, and retirement. She has several propositions to solve this problem: a) cutting taxes for middle class families, b) creating higher-paying jobs, and c) strengthening unions.

On creating higher paying jobs, Clinton says she will "harness innovation" by "... investing in clean energy and doubling investments in basic and applied research." If Clinton makes it to the White House, it certainly sounds like there will be more openings in the fields of scientific research which will pay more. And we all knew it was coming: CHANGE! Apparently we are entering a new world that's filled with it. This is why innovation, in her opinion, is so vital, which it seems to me that it is.

The War in Iraq

Over the past several years, we have heard numerous pitches for pulling out of Iraq. Clinton has a three-step plan for doing so. Now to me, this sounds scarily like a diet, and whenever I go on them they fail, but I'll run with it.

     Step 1: Start pulling back troops in the first two months of her administration. Ensure that the veterans, including from the Reserves and the National Guard, and their families have the highest quality of healthcare.

     Step 2: Make Iraq secure as we pull out. Direct aid to "the entities -- whether governmental or non-governmental..." which is supposed to make this aid most likely then to get to the Iraqi people. Support appointment of U.N. representative to try to bring peace to the region.

     Step 3: Focus on diplomacy in the region. Create group of allies to develop strategy to make Iraq stable. Address needs of Iraqi refugees.

It sounds to me like it could work, but that may just be because it's on paper. But I guess it's worth a try.

Fixing the Education System

Being a student myself, I'll say that this is one of the issues I am fairly concerned with. I saw one thing that automatically made me happy: axing No Child Left Behind. This program has been cutting out school programs and electives to concentrate more on intervention, which hurts the schools as a whole, for it means that students who are proficient loose out. At my old school, they cut the band program out, which was one of the primary reasons why I left since that was one of my favorite things there.

However, I did see one thing I wasn't all that enthused about, which was "pre-kindergarten for all four year olds." I never went to pre-school, and I still keep a 4.0 GPA. It seems to me that pre-school should really only be for the kids who really need it. For me, I was surrounded by a quite enriching environment when I was young: my parents always read to me and we went to lots of places like the library and museums, so pre-school would not have really done that much good for me. This is one thing I do not stand for.

Immigration

One of Clinton's propositions is to strengthen the U.S./Mexico border. The only problem I see is that everyone says that, but they never seem to have that good of a strategy for doing so. However, I do see eye to eye with her because she does propose strict punishment of those who exploit illegal immigrants.

See Hillary Clinton's website.

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Barack Obama: The Potential First African-American President

One thing I'd like to get out of the way: Barack Obama's website looks a lot more appealing than Hillary Clinton's. I don't know, it seems to have a much more inviting color scheme. Okay, now I'm getting a bit off track... Obama then.

Healthcare

A significant problem in America is that not enough people have health insurance. Obama is proposing that, with his new healthcare plan, one would be able to keep their healthcare when they move between jobs.  He also is proposing "affordable premiums, co-pays and deductibles." By far though, what I saw was best was his guaranteeing eligibility, meaning that people will not be turned away from healthcare plans because of any pre-existing conditions. This is the problem my mom has: since she has thyroid cancer that keeps coming back, the most she can get into is an HMO. At least we get pretty good coverage, but it's still the idea that she's been rejected from the private companies because of medical problems that she couldn't control.

The Economy

Clinton and Obama have quite similar stances on one thing: the problem of low wages versus rising housing and living costs. Like Clinton, Obama is saying that, if elected president, he will cut taxes for the middle class.

Another thing that sounds pretty nice to me is that he will simplify the tax filing process in a way that means most Americans will be able to file taxes in less than five minutes. His administration will get the IRS to use information it already has to "... give taxpayers the option of pre-filled tax forms to verify, sign, and return." It's true that I don't pay taxes yet, but my dad normally spends an entire weekend working on taxes, and it really seems to stress him out, so this proposal certainly sounds easy and convenient.

This is the point where it feels like Clinton and Obama are just copying and pasting ideas for how to run America; Obama also wants to create more jobs. Here's where it gets a little weird, though: he wants "... to double federal funding for basic research...". And his job creation is based on jobs dealing with the discovery of cleaner energy sources. If the idea that they have similar platforms seemed wrong before, I think we can reasonably call it justified now.

The War in Iraq

Obama does us the favor of giving a specific time by which he plans to have all of our troops out of Iraq: he plans to get our troops out within sixteen months. Along with this (and just like Clinton), Obama wants Iraq's leaders to learn to cooperate with each other and together bring peace to the region. And, once again, he will try to get neighboring countries to not meddle in Iraq and to keep Iraq's borders secure, though to be honest, I don't know how other countries can help with that one.

Education

There is one position Obama stands for which might make me go to supporting him: he supports universal preschool, but it will still be voluntary, because again, I don't think all kids need preschool. As long as it's still voluntary, I'm good with it.

Here's a possible problem, though. He doesn't want to get rid of No Child Left Behind, just fix it. He says he will improve the assessments that assess children's knowledge at the end of the year, and he says that he will try a lot harder to actually support schools that aren't making standards, not punish them. I guess that sounds okay...ish, I just hope they stop taking away the extra programs I mentioned earlier.

One thing really jumped out at me, though: he says that he wants to influence more on math and science, not math and English. Obama seems to feel that science needs a stronger foundation in school curriculums, because he says he will strengthen it. To be quite honest, I do think that math and English are the most important subjects in school. It's true, the scientific methods allows you to problem solve effectively, but you really need to be literate, be able to analyze reading, etc.

Immigration

Immigration is something this nation is having significant problems with. However, Obama has a good solution to the problem. By working with Mexico, Obama wants to promote "ethnic development" in Mexico to decrease the urge to immigrate here illegally. This really does sound good. My only question is how Obama would do this, because he doesn't seem to offer up much detail. Another was to decrease the incentive is that he would "crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants." Once again, no details, so I'm not really sure what his plan is there. Oh, and then he wants secure borders.

Rural Communities

Since I go to school in a rural area, I do have an interest in this. I like that Obama is concerned with areas like mine, which gives him kudos with me. He has a strong list of plans to support small business farmers and make it easier for farmers to get their first farm. Another good thing was to improve rural health care and education. I'm certainly glad that he cares about these things so much. I mean, I pass about six dairies on my way to school every day, so it seems like a good sign that Obama cares so much about their welfare.

See Barack Obama's website.

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So, what's my verdict? I don't really know. There are definite pros I have for each candidate and then definite cons I have for each candidate. For me, whichever one gets the Democratic nomination I will support. I'm just glad I don't have to vote yet.