Clinton and Obama As A Fantasy Top Team


I have a fantasy. President Hillary and Vice President Barack are making their stereotype-shattering partnership a model of gender and racial equality before the world. Each has specific areas of governmental performance for which she or he takes primary oversight responsibility. It is expected that if their teamwork continues to flourish, Barack Obama will succeed Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016.

In the meantime they have to clean up the mess left by George W. Bush’s war in Iraq and the damage to America’s reputation. They have taken up the proposal advanced by Sen. Joe Biden, among others, that the Iraqi parliament be urged to amend the Constitution so as to divide the country into three semi-autonomous regions of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, with a loose federal superstructure to act for the country in defense and foreign affairs and to insure fair division of oil revenues.

The new president’s choice of a woman as secretary of defense has sent a signal that the special concerns of women will be represented in defense decisions. Similarly the selection of a woman as vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will emphasize the importance of understanding these concerns in planning by the military services.

All through the administration there will be new attention to issues of importance to women — not as a panacea, but as an effort to assure balance. Similar attention will be paid to racial equality in all matters. While the administration will make clear its respect for the Supreme Court


Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion, it will strengthen efforts to provide an alternative to abortion through counseling, family planning and availability of contraceptives. In programs to combat poverty and the prevalence of AIDS in Third World countries it will remove the ban on furnishing condoms and will support efforts to improve the status of women. It will encourage broad stem-cell research in medicine.

 

While continuing measures to combat terrorism and intensifying support for the multi-nation campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan, it will encourage increased educational opportunities for women throughout the Middle East, offering scholarships at many levels for study in this country, with help in obtaining visas. It will not discriminate against men; they can come too.

 

While continuing measures to combat terrorism and intensifying support for the multi-nation campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan, it will encourage increased educational opportunities for women throughout the Middle East, offering scholarships at many levels for study in this country, with help in obtaining visas. It will not discriminate against men; they can come too.


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In my dream of a humbler United States resuming a cooperative role in the United Nations, I assumed that the same skills that brought Clinton and Obama to power would serve them in persuading Congress to support their bold program. Then, of course, I woke up to hard reality.

I’m not sure I would want to support Hillary Clinton against other potential nominees. I wish I could say, with Gerald Ford, that the long national nightmare were over — this time not Watergate but the Bush fiasco of never-ending war in Iraq combined with bristling at Iran. Short of the unacceptable Draconian remedy of cutting off funds, Congress cannot do much to halt the "surge" of additional troops being sent to Iraq. Indeed, Defense Secretary Gates may have a point that a vote of nonsupport at this time could embolden the insurgents in Iraq.

But there is one step Legislators can take now to avert expansion of the war to Iran. That is to state unequivocally that they will not support any use of U.S. military forces against Iran that does not have explicit approval by Congress.


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The flowering of presidential candidacies among Democratic hopefuls and the emergence of Republican counterparts in Arizona, Sen. John McCain, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, illustrates what a muddled system we have for choosing candidates. Added to the muddle is the plan of other states like California to get into the act by setting a date for its primaries ahead of the traditional early vote in New Hampshire. What would make a great deal of sense is the establishment of regional primaries in, say, six areas of the country.

That way candidates could concentrate their efforts at particular times on groups of states that have similar interests. This would avoid the insane need for candidates repeatedly to criss-cross the country and enable them to concentrate their campaigning. It would enable voters to make more ready comparisons. If the party chiefs would get together to work out such a program, perhaps letting the respective regions take turns with early dates so as to avoid favoritism, they would genuinely earn gratitude from a voting public, sick of trying to watch too many balls in the air.


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As one of the crew of persons who worked hard to raise capital to preserve the Holley-Williams House in Lakeville as a treasure of 19th century furnishings and lore about the Holley family and the iron industry in the Northwest Corner, I am saddened that the Salisbury Association has decided that it must sell the property. But the decision was inevitable. Despite intensive promotion of the historic features and attractions of the house, the first part of which was built in 1768, and despite the numerous pageants, concerts, drills and exhibits in the canon museum, prepared with painstaking care, attendance over a period of years never justified the expenses of keeping a structure of that age in repair.

At one time I had hoped that a suitable use for the Holley-Williams House was a headquarters or subsidiary structure for the new Upper Housatonic National Heritage Area. But the topography of the hill on which the buildings are situated made such use infeasible. The Salisbury Association has done the next best thing by stipulating in the proposed sale that particular historic features must be preserved and monitored by the Historical New England Stewardship Program.

One point is emphasized by the 35-year experience of the association in carrying out the terms of the well-intentioned bequest of Margaret Williams leaving the house to the Salisbury Association. Civic nonprofit groups must be wary of accepting gifts of property that require maintenance unless they are accompanied by sufficient funds to cover the upkeep in perpetuity.

 

 

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