TWO HILLARYs!

Today, I was watching Tim Russert's "Meet The Press" program, and his guest was Democratic Party's Presidential contender Hillary Clinton.

After the first few minutes into the program, I noticed something strange:

Hillary was using the words "I", "Me" and "US (as in her and Bill Clinton)" at an alarmingly large number of times! Almost as if she was obsessed with herself!

Over the years, I had admired Hillary for her bold stands on issues, and her commitment to issues related to children and poverty in particular, and her commitment to act on behalf of these two unrepresented constituencies. All along, I had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to it than met the eye, but I could not put my finger on it.

Today, I did!

I saw two Hillarys:

One Hillary is the one she believes in and portrays as an honest, dedicated, caring and compassionate person;

The other Hillary is the one we all see in real life: self-justifying, obfuscating, conniving and in a convenient context that she has created for herself, on her own terms!

Throughout the hour of justifications of her position on Iraq war and velvet-glove attacks on Barak Obama, the underlying message was "ME, ME and MINE".

While attacking Obama on his 2002 anti-war speech and his subsequent "support" of the war in 2005, 2006 and 2007, she conveniently side-stepped the fact that she not only AUTHORIZED this obscene war, but supported it all along.

Never did I hear one word of regret of her position, other than saying that she made a mistake of believing in Bush! This sounds like a convenient way to cover up her own REAL mistake in pre-authorizing the war!

On the other hand, when I was watching Barak Obama's speeches - the victory speech in Iowa and the concession speech in New Hampshire- I noticed that he used the words "You" and "Us" almost all the time and used "Me" and "Mine" very rarely.

Could it explain the fundamental difference between these two candidates? I believe it does.

Honesty counts, and it counts even more so in this Presidential election than at any other time, because DISHONESTY is what has brought us to these perilous times!

Perhaps more revealing than this convenient logic is her serious lapse of knowledge of our Constitution! Our Constitution expressly PROHIBITS an unprovoked and pre-emptive war against any nation in the world. It also prohibits the Congress from delegating the authority to declare a war to the President of the United States. This is one of the major pillars of the separation of powers.

One would think that being a graduate of Law School and a practicing Lawyer for many years, Hillary would know and understand our Constitution. It appears that such is not the case. If she had any doubt about these fundamental tenets of our Constitution, all she had to do is to WALK THE FEW STEPS to the doyen of Constitution, Senator Robert Byrd, who would have set her on a straight path.

There is one more issue that is gnawing at the conscience of "We, the People". That is the issue of political dynasties. So far, we have had twelve years of George H.W. Bush and 7 DISASTROUS YEARS of George w. Bush. In between these two, we have 8 years of Bill Clinton, and subsequently 8 years of Hillary Clinton in the Senate! Counting in this year as Bush's last year in office, that comes to the dynastic rule of two families for 36 years!

Is this what we want in our government? Are we to assume that there are no other competent people in our country qualified and willing to serve our country as President? Unless we accept the cockamamie idea of genetic superiority, the resounding answer is "NO"!

At present, Barak Obama has shown the courage, charisma, intelligence and the fortitude to stand up to such a formidable political machine. If we decide to get away from the toxic dose of tokenism and racism, and for a moment put aside the fact that Hillary is a woman, and no woman has ever been elected as a President, and also that Barak Obama is an African-American, and no African American has ever been elected as a President, it stands to reason that we should choose the most qualified and competent person to pull our country out of the current mess and lead us to a better future for the next 4 -or possibly 8- years.

One of the most important qualification would be to know, understand and appreciate our Constitution and to take the oath of office that formally declares the obedience to the Constitution of the United States. It is an oath that has to be taken with full understanding, conviction and commitment. Our present President has been reported to say that our Constitution is "A goddam**d piece of paper". Look what happened over the past seven years because of disregard for this most important document that governs the function of our Government and gives us citizens the fundamental and unalienable rights. Our country is in a political, moral and financial morass! We have hawked our future to China, Saudi Arabia and other wealthy nations of the world, and we are entering into a bankruptcy on all of these three fronts.

We need a political and moral savior!

Who would that be?

Hillary?

Obama?

Or someone else?

You decide!

But do remember the history! If you don't, it is bound to repeat itself, and you would have nobody to blame but yourself.

If that happens, and when your children and grandchildren ask you a few years down the line why we are such a poor, third rate country, be sure to tell them the truth!

Peace and Blessings!