I don't hate either candidate

[leftofthedial]

I think they both are highly competent politicians. either is preferable in many ways to any repuke.

My problem is I don't really *trust* either one of them. There is so little real difference between them, their espoused values, their positions on key issues and their records. They share an *extremely* narrow slice of the political spectrum and any differentiation one tries to make between them is largely irrelevant to someone not inside that narrow little slice along with them.

Despite the rhetoric of "change," I do not see any fudnamental change inherent in either candidate's positions. They each have areas in which they might make things a bit better than they are today, but this country is SO far off track that slight fiddling with the controls won't matter much if at all.

The big things are so HUGELY wrong that promising to make the minor things slightly less awful is just not inspiring to me.

The rhetorical bickering of late (which has rapidly devolved into the usual absurdly trivial meaninglessness common in American politics) does no service at all to either candidate. Nor does it serve the party. Nor does it correspond in any way to the increasingly hollow claims to be the candidate of change.

The supporters here at DU, on both sides, are doing much more harm than good to their candidate's prospects by continuing to act like shit-slinging chimpanzees in a snit every time they detect the slightest deviation from the orthodox view of "reality" from inside their candidate's cult of personality.

I've seriously thought of supporting one candidate or the other ever since the bona fide Democrats left the race or were shown the door by the corporate owners of our privatized electoral process, but it's harder and harder to see a hopeful way forward with either of them. I guess that's a "win" for Clinton, as the trailer.

I've asked before and I'll ask again now. Please, as positively as you can, convince me why I should support either candidate.

[yardwork]

1. I will support whomever gets the nomination.

It's essential that we elect a Demcrat and have that person actually take office. The Supreme Court alone is a good reason. There may not be a lot of difference between Barack and Hillary, but there sure is a lot of difference between either of them and any Republican.

That vague distrust you feel? I feel that about all politicians. But Democrats are better than Republicans.

[LakeSamish706]

2. There is one huge difference... When Obama speaks, he speaks of "Us" not "Me". n/t

[leftofthedial]

4. I don't find much substance in either candidate's rhetoric

so that doesn't seem like such a major difference.

Still, Obama is an inspiring speaker and seems clearly able to unite many people.

[jean627]

3. IMO,

The biggest difference is that Clinton is tight DLC, Obama is not. As Obama has said, they haven't "seasoned and boiled" him enough to be sure he will follow the DLC playbook closely enough. He still has too many independent beliefs and aspirations.

As for Clinton, I don't trust her to allow unfettered access to the information and evidence of the "screw ups" of the Bush administration.

And, why won't she disclose her tax forms?