Obama and Clinton on the Issues

[Torie]

I could not help but notice a long thread about just whether or not Obama was the fairest liberal of them all in the Senate.  Most everyone seemed to enjoy the robust flame war from what I can tell. No doubt it is more boring but perhaps it might be more useful to set forth what Clinton and Obama disagree about on the issues, and who is to the left of whom where they do (choosing what is "left" of course can be highly subjective). The one most left on an issue gets a point. So let me get the ball rolling:

1. Health care: both the same except Obama does not want to make insurance mandatory for adults, just affordable, and Hillary wants both.  Advantage Clinton. H1

2. Iraq: Both want to get out, but Obama seems a bit more damn the torpedos full speed out than Hillary, who just says getting out fast isn't likely to cause a collapse, and well we aren't going to get out entirely anyway. Advantage Obama. O1

3. Other Foreign Policy:  Clinton seems to be more of an dominatrix (obliterate and no perp walks), where Obama at once embraces talk, but eschews tough talk. So Obama doves and loves out Clinton. O2

4. Taxes: Both want to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the "rich," Obama wants to strip the SS tax cap (maybe with a bubble in the middle to help out law associates while screwing law partners), and Obama has made recent noises that maybe the capital gains tax should be raised from 15% to just 20%, rather than all the way back to 25%. Clinton has not to my knowledge become more specific. So Obama gets a point for raising my social security taxes, but loses a point for not wanting to raise my capital gains taxes all the way back to 25%, so it is a wash. No point for either.

Score so far O2- C1.  Obama is in the lead!

Others may know about who wants to spend more, who wants to legalize more quickly and humanely illegals, who is more protectionist, who is more in favor of comparative worth pricing of wage amounts as opposed to supply and demand doing it, who wants to screw C02 with the most economic disruption possible, who wants to impose more regulations on Wall Street, who wants to make it easier for labor unions to divert workers pay into the Democrat party without their consent or over their objection, who wants to unionize workers without having those annoying election certifications that unions usually lose these days, who wants to give more money to public school teachers for acquiring more useless degrees (Obama by the way, made some vague noises about merit pay, so he loses half a point for that come to think of it), who wants to unleash the tort lawyers by removing barriers to  class action lawsuits, who wants to appoint judges with the most hyperkenetic view of the "living" Constitution, and well you get the idea. So many issues, so little time.

Have at it!