I have decided to support former First Lady, US Senator, and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States.
This is an affirmative choice, and not a negative reaction to the other two candidates remaining in the race, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former Baltimore Mayor and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley. In the unlikely event either of them were to win the nomination, I would have no trouble supporting them in the general. I am not going to criticize either of them, nor am I interested in comparing and contrasting on specific positions.
I will explain how I came to this decision, which I made at the conclusion of the 2nd Democratic debate, meaning I had seen the three remaining candidates in three events together this cycle — the two debates and in between the forum with Rachel Maddow.
The only candidate I have seen in person this cycle was Sanders, in an event sponsored by my Congressman, Don Beyer.
At Yearly Kos 2007 in Chicago, I chose to go to the breakout session with Clinton, and got to see her from an aisle seat on the 5th row.
I have seen O’Malley up close when he visited the high school where i was teaching.
I know people who have worked closely with each of them, and have a further sense of what they are like from those people, and as a serious political junkie (who did teach AP US Government and Politics for 9 years), I have
absorbed huge amounts of press about each of them.
Let me explain how and why I came to this decision.