Rahaf Harfoush

My good friend Bob Hepburn recently wrote a great column entitled “Ten Reasons Why Hilary Should Stay” In last Thursday’s Toronto Star. We had lunch before he had finished the piece and we had the opportunity to debate it, since I’m an Obama fan.

After putting some thought into it, I decided to get into the spirit of things and try to figure out some more reasons of why Hilary SHOULD stay, just to see if I could. Here are Bob’s reasons:

1. She has strong, well-thought-out positions on topics from health care to Iraq and the environment. If anything, she has a wonk-like obsession with policy.

2. She is smart, has outstanding academic credentials, and was her husband Bill Clinton’s most trusted White House adviser.

3. She has a strong personality, enthusiasm, determination. She has never been afraid to fight for what she believes in.

4. She has a strong team of advisers who could form the backbone of a Hillary White House.

5. She is still winning primaries, and has won almost all the big states, including New York and California, that the Democrats must win in November to gain the White House. While Hillary trails slightly in elected delegates, she is virtually tied with Obama in popular votes. Polls show they are in a dead heat in Indiana while Obama leads in North Carolina, two states with primaries next Tuesday.

6. She is the beneficiary of the political damage inflicted upon Obama by the controversial comments by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was Obama’s pastor for 16 years. Obama is outraged by the latest assertion by Wright that criticism of his incendiary sermons is an attack on the black church, but polls show his support slips every time Wright opens his mouth.

7. She fares better in polls against Republican nominee John McCain than does Obama. In a USA Today poll taken April 18 to 20, Clinton led McCain 50-44 per cent while Obama led him by 47-44 per cent.

8. She is ahead of Obama in winning support of “super delegates,” who are party officials and elected politicians. This is important because neither she nor Obama will have the 2,024 pledged delegates needed to win before the convention starts. Eighty per cent of those delegates are awarded through primaries; the other 20 per cent are super delegates, who can vote any way they want at the convention.

9. What is so wrong about a “contested” convention? They are rare in the U.S., the last one being in 1952 when Adlai Stevenson won the Democratic nomination. In Canada, though, we see them every time a party holds a leadership race. Here, emotions run high, bitter words are spoken, but no one argues that every candidate except the front-runner should drop out before the actual balloting begins. There will be lots of time after the convention to heal party rifts and focus on beating McCain on Nov. 4.

10. She is carrying the hopes and dreams of millions of women.

Here are some of the reasons that I am adding in the nature of good humor. (Read: Don’t email me about it, since it’s all in good fun)

My 5 Reasons are:

1) Women make better leaders than men. (That’s right, I went there) According to a CBC interview with former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers who is the author of “Why Women Should Rule the World” if the fairer sex was in charge “Politics would be more collegial. Businesses would be more productive. And communities would be healthier. Empowering women would make the world a better place—not because women are the same as men, but precisely because they are different.”

2) She’s a bitch. And that’s a good thing. But don’t take my word for it. See what funny lady Tina Fey had to say about the subject. (Hilary portion at the 2:00 minute mark)

According to Fey, Hilary is as bitch, and that’s good because bitches get things done. LOL

3) We’d get co-presidents. All joking aside, Tina Fey also makes the excellent point that maybe having two smart intelligent people running the country might not be such a bad thing.

4) It would stop Canada’s brain drain problem. According to the Facebook group search I found several groups of people willing to move to Canada if she gets elected. I say, welcome!

5) She’s learned from her mistakes. Hopefully after almost destroying the US healthcare system and voting for the war on Iraq, she’ll have learned enough to know that entering into an illegal war is probably not the best idea for the economy, and that giving people access to health care is essential for the well being of the entire country. Just a thought.