Inside an LA polling station (2 of 6)
Story Transcript
CALIFORNIA VOTER: My name is Cherise, and I am currently a Ph.D. student at USC.
VOICE OF PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR: And whom did you vote for? And why?
CALIFORNIA VOTER: Well, I was actually having a big internal debate about this year’s election. And I’ve been for Hillary all along, primarily because I’ve been kind of turned off by Obama’s rhetoric. I constantly heard all these beautiful things that he had to say, but I was never really getting his content. You know, he was never talking about the issues. And as I was explaining, I don’t necessarily blame him for it; I kind of blame his supporters, who are very excited about the rhetoric and they want to hear the beautiful speech, but they’re never asking tough questions about what he plans to do about health care. Like, I’ve never heard him discuss his health-care plan at all. And on top of that, I felt that his inexperience is not what the country needs in our current state. Although change is good, I feel fresh faces are important, I feel that we have gotten ourselves into such a conundrum that to pick up somebody completely new and green is not what is needed. So I was for Hillary because that was the default. I mean, she’s a great woman. I think she really knows what she’s doing. She’s been working at this for twenty-some odd years. I think she’s just been grooming herself for president. And that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that, with being goal-oriented. I think she might be a little conniving, but I think every other president has been, and no one’s held it against any man to be conniving. So I wasn’t surprised. But then this weekend I was like, “You know what? I don’t think I’m going to vote,” because I didn’t defaulting was a good reason to vote. I thought that I should really support somebody if I’m going to vote for them, and not just vote against them, which is what I did in the Kerry-Bush campaign or the Kerry-Bush competition, as I was just anti-Bush. But this time I was like, “Well, I’m just not going to vote.” Then I went to work, and my boss let me go, because he insisted that I vote, and he’s a big Hillary supporter. And, like, really all I needed was a push to vote for Hillary, because I was on board, but I hadn’t even convinced myself. So we talked for, like, half an hour about her health- care plan, her energy plan, her stimulus package. And then he let me go an hour early to come out here and vote. So I cast my vote for Hillary.
JAY: Some of the issues are to do with war and peace. There’s some significant difference in policy. A lot of it’s the same, some different. On Iran in particular, Obama says negotiate unconditionally with Iran. Clinton seems to have a little closer to the current policy of isolating Iran. Obama says we’re just going to have to accept Iranian influence in Iraq. You can’t make them a military [inaudible] political objectives [inaudible] and that, essentially, you’re going to have to negotiate. Clinton says for the first year she won’t negotiate. Do you agree with Clinton on these issues?
CALIFORNIA VOTER: I agree with her desire to step back and assess the situation, because I know that I am not privy to what’s going on in the White House. And although she may be because her husband’s an ex-president, she has access to certain documents, I am for her argument that states that she needs to see the situation before she can make any rash judgments. And I thought that his blanket statement at this current state or this current juncture was not necessary. It seemed like a campaign promise to me. And it seems to me that once he gets into the White House and all of his advisors and everyone says, “Dude, you’ve got to wait, like, six months, alright? Like, you’ve got to see, you’ve got to try this, you’ve got to try this, and then we’ll talk to them,” that would have fallen apart. For him to say, “Well, you know what? This is what I said in my campaign. I’m going to go to Iran right now,” seems to deny or be blind to issues that he knows nothing about because he’s not currently president.
JAY: In terms of foreign policy issues, questions of war and peace, or domestic issues, what were you more focused on?
CALIFORNIA VOTER: I think I was more focused on domestic issues, although what really pushed me over the edge, and this is my stump speech against Obama, is the fact that I feel the president needs to juggle. If the job requires nothing else, you know, ’cause people will say, “Oh, he’s surrounded by consultants, he’s surrounded by advisors, you know, he doesn’t necessarily need to know everything fresh out of the gate.” But being president requires juggling. And the week that he called the Kenyan opposition leader to talk, which I thought was an excellent move on his part, there were actually floods in Illinois. There was very little coverage of it. I remember hearing, like, one line on the news and thinking to myself, “There’s floods in Illinois and Obama is not there taking care of his current constituents? He’s out fishing for more votes by calling the Kenyan leader?” And that just really struck me as not able to juggle, not able to do his current job and run for president.
DISCLAIMER:
Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
Story Transcript
CALIFORNIA VOTER: My name is Cherise, and I am currently a Ph.D. student at USC.
VOICE OF PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR: And whom did you vote for? And why?
CALIFORNIA VOTER: Well, I was actually having a big internal debate about this year’s election. And I’ve been for Hillary all along, primarily because I’ve been kind of turned off by Obama’s rhetoric. I constantly heard all these beautiful things that he had to say, but I was never really getting his content. You know, he was never talking about the issues. And as I was explaining, I don’t necessarily blame him for it; I kind of blame his supporters, who are very excited about the rhetoric and they want to hear the beautiful speech, but they’re never asking tough questions about what he plans to do about health care. Like, I’ve never heard him discuss his health-care plan at all. And on top of that, I felt that his inexperience is not what the country needs in our current state. Although change is good, I feel fresh faces are important, I feel that we have gotten ourselves into such a conundrum that to pick up somebody completely new and green is not what is needed. So I was for Hillary because that was the default. I mean, she’s a great woman. I think she really knows what she’s doing. She’s been working at this for twenty-some odd years. I think she’s just been grooming herself for president. And that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that, with being goal-oriented. I think she might be a little conniving, but I think every other president has been, and no one’s held it against any man to be conniving. So I wasn’t surprised. But then this weekend I was like, “You know what? I don’t think I’m going to vote,” because I didn’t defaulting was a good reason to vote. I thought that I should really support somebody if I’m going to vote for them, and not just vote against them, which is what I did in the Kerry-Bush campaign or the Kerry-Bush competition, as I was just anti-Bush. But this time I was like, “Well, I’m just not going to vote.” Then I went to work, and my boss let me go, because he insisted that I vote, and he’s a big Hillary supporter. And, like, really all I needed was a push to vote for Hillary, because I was on board, but I hadn’t even convinced myself. So we talked for, like, half an hour about her health- care plan, her energy plan, her stimulus package. And then he let me go an hour early to come out here and vote. So I cast my vote for Hillary.
JAY: Some of the issues are to do with war and peace. There’s some significant difference in policy. A lot of it’s the same, some different. On Iran in particular, Obama says negotiate unconditionally with Iran. Clinton seems to have a little closer to the current policy of isolating Iran. Obama says we’re just going to have to accept Iranian influence in Iraq. You can’t make them a military [inaudible] political objectives [inaudible] and that, essentially, you’re going to have to negotiate. Clinton says for the first year she won’t negotiate. Do you agree with Clinton on these issues?
CALIFORNIA VOTER: I agree with her desire to step back and assess the situation, because I know that I am not privy to what’s going on in the White House. And although she may be because her husband’s an ex-president, she has access to certain documents, I am for her argument that states that she needs to see the situation before she can make any rash judgments. And I thought that his blanket statement at this current state or this current juncture was not necessary. It seemed like a campaign promise to me. And it seems to me that once he gets into the White House and all of his advisors and everyone says, “Dude, you’ve got to wait, like, six months, alright? Like, you’ve got to see, you’ve got to try this, you’ve got to try this, and then we’ll talk to them,” that would have fallen apart. For him to say, “Well, you know what? This is what I said in my campaign. I’m going to go to Iran right now,” seems to deny or be blind to issues that he knows nothing about because he’s not currently president.
JAY: In terms of foreign policy issues, questions of war and peace, or domestic issues, what were you more focused on?
CALIFORNIA VOTER: I think I was more focused on domestic issues, although what really pushed me over the edge, and this is my stump speech against Obama, is the fact that I feel the president needs to juggle. If the job requires nothing else, you know, ’cause people will say, “Oh, he’s surrounded by consultants, he’s surrounded by advisors, you know, he doesn’t necessarily need to know everything fresh out of the gate.” But being president requires juggling. And the week that he called the Kenyan opposition leader to talk, which I thought was an excellent move on his part, there were actually floods in Illinois. There was very little coverage of it. I remember hearing, like, one line on the news and thinking to myself, “There’s floods in Illinois and Obama is not there taking care of his current constituents? He’s out fishing for more votes by calling the Kenyan leader?” And that just really struck me as not able to juggle, not able to do his current job and run for president.
DISCLAIMER:
Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
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